Former Professional Baseball Coach Joins Division I Softball Coaching Ranks
Another former professional baseball player and coach has found his way to Division I softball.
Following Idaho State's Aug. 25 hiring of former MLB All-Star Billy Butler as an assistant coach, Syracuse announced on Wednesday the hiring of long-time professional baseball hitting coach Corey Hart.
Hart will serve as the hitting coach at Syracuse, joining head coach Shannon Doepking, who is entering her seventh season leading the Orange. Assistant coach Travis Owen will continue working primarily with the Syracuse pitching staff in 2027.
The move to bring in a professional hitting coach with 18 years of coaching experience may be what the Orange needs to finally be competitive in the ACC.
Syracuse went 18-26 last season, with a 4-18 record in ACC play. Since Syracuse joined the ACC in 2014, the softball team has never had a winning record in conference play. Its best conference records consisted of a 12-12 season in 2014 and a 10-10 record in 2017.
Hart will look to make an immediate impact as he works with an Orange offense that struggled in 2026. The team was ranked last in the ACC in batting average, runs scored, hits, extra-base hits and runs batted in.
The overall team batting average was .235 in 2026, which was a 50-point drop from the previous campaign. The Orange slugging percentage was only .369, which also represented a decrease from the previous season.
According to the press release, Hart served as a professional hitting coach across three Major League organizations, which included the Toronto Blue Jays, Miami Marlins, and Milwaukee Brewers. He instructed hitters at every level of the minor league system, from Low-A to Triple-A, as well as spending time with Major League rosters.
Hart most recently served in the Toronto Blue Jays organization from 2016 to 2024. He worked a Single-A Dunedin, Triple-A Buffalo and two separate stints with the major league club in Toronto in 2019 and 2020.
Hart earned All-Big 12 Conference honors as a senior third baseman at Oklahoma after hitting .347 and driving in 69 runs, according to the Syracuse press release. He was chosen in the 23rd round of the 1998 amateur draft by the Kansas City Royals. After beginning his pro career with the Spokane Indians, he went on to play for the Charleston Alley Cats, the Wilmington Blue Rocks, the Wichita Wranglers, the Omaha Royals, the Nashville Sounds and the Bridgeport Bluefish. In all, Hart played in 714 minor league games.
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Thomas Carey was born and raised in Delaware and is a graduate of both the University of Delaware and Wilmington University. He has spent his career as a legal writer. He played competitive modified softball for ten years and has been an assistant coach for girls fastpitch since 2017. For the past several years, he served as a recruiting coordinator at the 18-and-under travel ball level.
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