Another piece of the puzzle is solved for the new Coastal Plain League franchise in Macon. The Macon Baseball club has hired Danny Higginbotham to be their manager for their inaugural season.
The 2018 season will be Higginbotham’s  his fourth in the Coastal Plain League, including the last two at the helm of the Martinsville Mustangs.

In the 2017 season he led the Mustangs to a (14-13) first half record. This was the first winning record the Mustangs had seen in the first half of the season since 2007.  They finished in 7th place for the 2017 season in the West with a record of 24-31. He spent the 2015 season as the Pitching Coach for the Morehead City Marlins. “I bring a lot of experience in the Coastal Plain League which I think will help in recruiting talented players and get us off to a strong start in Macon,” said Higginbotham.

Higginbotham already had a past relationship with team owners Jon Spoelstra and Steve DeLay.  He worked in ticket sales for the Double AA Frisco Roughriders, a team in which Spoelstra and DeLay oversaw business operations when they led Mandalay Baseball Properties.  “I can’t wait to get to Macon and get started.  The plan for renovating Luther Williams Field will be a tremendous asset in recruiting and keeping players.  With the community’s enthusiasm for baseball coming back to Macon and Steve and Jon operating the business side, I know we’ll have terrific crowds and fan support.  That’s what will help us draw talented players in the Southeast and around the country.”

Currently, Higginbotham is an Assistant Coach at South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. At SDSU he works with the catchers and the hitters along with the coordination of camps. Prior to SDSU, he was an Assistant Coach at Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, Iowa. During that season at ICCC, the Tritons went (38-16) and were Region 11 Champions. Before joining the ICCC staff, Higginbotham spent two years at Arkansas Tech University as a Graduate Assistant and Recruiting Coordinator.

During his playing career, Higginbotham played catcher at Arkansas Tech University from 2009-2011 where he earned Gulf South Conference Academic Honors in each of his three seasons. During his three years at ATU, they compiled a record of 88-65 and earned bids to the Gulf South Conference Tournament in 2010 and 2011. Higginbotham started his college playing career at Howard College in Big Spring, TX in 2008. He also spent part of his summer in 2010 playing in Antwerp, Belgium for Team Nada SSM from Croatia in the European Baseball Championship.

Coach Higginbotham is originally from Bedford, Texas and graduated from Euless Trinity High School in 2007. “I have visited Macon and have seen the plans for stadium improvements and love it. I am very excited to be a part of Macon Baseball’s inaugural season.”

Along with Coach Higginbotham, the team announced the hiring of pitching coach Ryan Vruggink. Vruggink was the pitching coach for Higginbotham in Martinsville for the past two seasons. He currently is a Graduate assistant for the Mineral Area College Cardinals in Park Hill, Missouri.