Lebanon Valley College assistant baseball coach Beth Woerner has helped guide the Dutchmen to success on the diamond, while blazing trails in college baseball.

Woerner joined Lebanon Valley's coaching staff in the summer of 2021, becoming the first female full-time assistant baseball coach in the NCAA. The Dutchmen have won a pair of conference championships and made two NCAA Division III Tournament appearances in her two seasons with the team. Woerner primarily works with the infielders and baserunners and plays a key role in recruiting. She has coached four All-Region and eight All-Conference infielders during her time at LVC.

"It's rewarding to work with a player on something specific in practice and then see them succeed in a game," Woerner said. "Those are the special moments that not everyone may see."

Woerner came to Annville with an already extensive baseball background, working as a development coach at the University of Charleston and as an assistant coach for the Newark Pilots in the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League, among other roles. She also played for the DC Thunder and the Baltimore Pirates in the Eastern Women's Baseball Conference.

She has experience in analytics as well, holding certifications in Rapsodo Pitching and Hitting, Driveline Foundations of Pitching and Hitting and Driveline Pitch Design, among others. Woerner also conducted research as a program manager with Baseball Prospectus from June 2018 to January 2020, collaborating with analysts and developers on statistical projects. Analytics have become more prevalent in professional baseball in recent years, and Woerner has incorporated elements of this skill set into her coaching at LVC.

"Having a full-time assistant to be here in the office every day to talk with players, grow those relationships, interact with them [and] help them, she's been terrific at that," head coach Jonas Fester said. "I couldn't have asked for a better first full-time assistant."

While Woerner has made a difference with the team, she has also impacted the collegiate athletics coaching industry. She is one of the sport's few female assistant coaches in college, as well as the only full-time assistant in the NCAA.

"It's important for people in the baseball world to see coaches that don't necessarily look like them and might not think the way that they do," Fester said. "Hopefully, her getting into our industry will encourage other folks to get into it, and especially women. The next wave of young women baseball players will be pretty good, too, so having somebody here at the college level that they can see and point to is important."

Woerner said she wants other women to know that they can coach in baseball or work in any profession they want, even if a woman has yet to hold the position. She said she does not regularly think about being the sport's first collegiate full-time assistant, as she is focused on working with Lebanon Valley's players to elevate their game. However, there are instances that remind her of what her role means to others.

"Last year at one of our games, we had a recruit there and his little sister was with him," Woerner said. "I was walking back to the dugout and noticed she was looking right at me. And it was really cool because her brother was interested in all the other stuff that was happening, but I could tell she was looking at me. Those moments are special."

There has been a trend of more female coaches in professional baseball during recent years, including Alyssa Nakken of the San Francisco Giants, the first full-time coach in MLB history. Woerner said she believes this trend will continue throughout professional baseball.

In Annville, Woerner's has improved the team's aggressiveness on the basepaths, implementing a new baserunning strategy that includes both fundamentals and creativity. The Flying Dutchmen stole 27 bases in the season before Woerner joined the staff. They nearly tripled that output, swiping 71 bags during her first year in 2022, followed by 69 stolen bases in 2023.

"She's created a system that requires technical skills and things that you need to learn, but also some art, where you have a lot of feel and intuition," Fester said. "It's been a great combination, and we've become much more aggressive as a team, and she's directly responsible for that."

Third baseman Andrew Miles was a player who embraced this new system, leading the Dutchmen in stolen bases the last two seasons and improving each year. "Coach has helped me explore what works best for me in baserunning and fielding," Miles said. "By introducing multiple methods, I have explored my skill set better. Much of our practice is self-guided, which has allowed me to feel which skills we have been taught work best and let me become successful."

Woerner has also focused on the most effective ways to communicate information with players to help them make decisions during games. She spoke this August at Saberseminar, a baseball analytics conference in Chicago, Ill., detailing how to convey information when coaching baserunning. Woerner will also give an infield presentation at the American Baseball Coaches Association conference in January in Dallas, Texas.

Woerner continues to share her knowledge of the game daily with student-athletes at LVC. She said she enjoys being a part of the coaching staff for the Dutchmen and looks forward to continuing to provide players with the best possible experience.

"We're going to compete on the national level, but we're also going to give you time to develop as a person," Woerner said. "At LVC, the baseball team does an excellent job of allowing people to be exactly who they are. It's a really great experience to be part of the team."