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 Charleston RiverDogs

Yankees Name Ty Hawkins New RiverDogs Hitting Coach

June 22, 2017 - South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston RiverDogs News Release


CHARLESTON, S.C. - The New York Yankees have announced that Ty Hawkins has been named as the Charleston RiverDogs new hitting coach, taking over following the All-Star break for Ken Joyce who has been reassigned in the same position to the Gulf Coast League Yankees West team in Tampa.

Hawkins, 49, is in his 18th season with the Yankees, having last coached the GCL Yankees in 2016 and spending the previous eight seasons with Staten Island in the Short Season New York-Penn League. The Point Pleasant, N.J. native previously coached in the South Atlantic League with the Greensboro Bats in 2002.

The midseason coaching change is the first for the RiverDogs since 2006 when then Yankees Director of Player Development Pat Roessler took over for Bill Mosiello who left for a collegiate coaching position at the University of Southern California.

Undrafted after a collegiate career at Old Dominion, Hawkins signed with the Chicago Cubs in 1991 and played one professional season as an outfielder, hitting .216 (47-for-218) with two home runs and 24 RBI in 69 games. He went on to coach at Vanderbilt and the University of Illinois before joining the Yankees organization as a coach in the GCL in 1999.

Joyce, 52, continues his 21st season as a minor league coach, and first with the Yankees in the reassignment. The native New Englander has worked for three different organizations prior to the Yankees (Florida, Toronto, and San Francisco), having spent the previous five seasons with the Richmond Flying Squirrels (Double-A, Eastern League) in the Giants system.

Joyce's two decades in professional baseball include six seasons as a manager with the Portland native compiling a 340-316 (.518) record, all at the Single-A and independent levels. He spent two seasons as a hitting coach at the Triple-A level with two different clubs from 2009-10, including an '09 campaign when the Las Vegas 51's led the Pacific Coast League in hitting. Joyce began his professional coaching career with his hometown team, the Portand Sea Dogs, in 1996 as a hitting coach for the Marlins' Double-A squad after breaking into the staff as a volunteer bullpen catcher the two years prior.

With their retooled coaching staff, the RiverDogs open up the second half with a clean slate, starting with an eight-game road trip. Charleston opens up a four-game tilt against the first half champions, the Greenville Drive, the Class-A affiliate of the Greenville Drive, on Thursday night at Fluor Field at 7:05pm. The RiverDogs will send righty Freicer Perez (2-3, 3.51) who has allowed just five earned runs in his last five starts spanning 29.1 innings. The Drive's starter is righty Daniel Gonzalez (6-0, 2.48). The game can be tuned into on WTMA 1250 AM in the tri-county area and streaming online on riverdogs.com and via the RiverDogs station on the TuneIn Radio app .

RiverDogs tickets, including options for the all-new Riley Park Club, are now available and can be secured by contacting the box office at (843) 577-DOGS (3647) or online at www.riverdogs.com. Those that can't make it to the park can follow every pitch of the RiverDogs season on WTMA 1250 AM in the tri-county area or by streaming online at riverdogs.com and the TuneIn Radio App by searching "RiverDogs."


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