Springfield Standard

Missouri State University head baseball coach Joey Hawkins has announced promotions for three members of the Bears' staff. The changes include Aaron Sawchak moving to Chief of Staff, Kyle Cliff becoming Director of Pitching and Recruiting, and Tanner Petersen being named Director of Player Development.

"As we embark on a new academic and athletic year, I couldn't be more excited to promote Aaron, Kyle and Tanner into their new roles. The new landscape of college athletics is as competitive as ever, so as head coach I find it extremely important to try and stay ahead in all areas of our program to ensure on-field success. I look forward to seeing Aaron navigate the new waters of CUSA travel and day-to-day logistics, am excited to see Kyle organize and gameplan our recruiting efforts from high school to junior college and the transfer portal, and for Tanner to help tie all things player development together through resources, plans and data/analytics. Go Bears!" Hawkins said.

Aaron Sawchak joined Missouri State baseball before the 2021 season. As an undergraduate student, he was a bullpen catcher involved in social media content for the team. He later served as a graduate assistant and then became Director of Baseball Operations during his second year in that role. Sawchak handled day-to-day logistics while continuing his work with social media presence—duties he will maintain as Chief of Staff. A Springfield native, Sawchak holds both bachelor's (public relations) and master's (sports management) degrees from Missouri State.

Kyle Cliff started at Missouri State in fall 2024 as Director of Pitching. In his first season working with pitchers, the team achieved national recognition by ranking 32nd nationally in strikeouts per nine innings (9.51), which was also third best in school history since 1969. Individual accomplishments included Tyler Charlton setting a school record with 12.87 strikeouts per nine innings; Max Knight earning NCBWA Third-Team All-American honors along with conference accolades; Jason Schaaf receiving honorable mention all-league selection; and Curry Sutherland joining Schaaf on the league's all-tournament team.

Before joining Missouri State, Cliff coached at Emory & Henry College in Virginia for three years where he led pitching staff improvements while also coordinating recruiting efforts. He previously worked at Southeastern Oklahoma State where four pitchers received weekly conference awards over two seasons. At NAIA University of Rio Grande in Ohio, Cliff contributed to breaking a school strikeout record along with producing two All-Americans.

Tanner Petersen joined Missouri State’s baseball program in 2023 as a student assistant before advancing to Director of Analytics and Video for the 2025 season prior to this latest promotion. Petersen uses analytics resources for player development across the roster. He also coached summer baseball with Lakeshore Chinooks in 2023 after playing football and baseball at Rogersville High School—helping his team finish state runner-up alongside current MSU junior Curry Sutherland in 2022—and is pursuing degrees in data analytics (bachelor's) and information technology (master’s).