It’s almost baseball season here at ETSU and returning for his final season is Senior Landon Knack (Johnson City, Tennessee). D1Baseball.com’s Preseason Honor listed the top 150 pitchers in Division 1 and Knack came in at 11th.

Knack transferred to ETSU from Walters State Community College where he played two seasons. After that Knack returned to his home in Johnson City as a former Science Hill High School Standout.

Landon Knack

“It’s pretty awesome honestly, I have definitely changed a lot since I got here,” said Knack. “Before I came to ETSU I didn’t throw very hard. Since I’ve come here, I have come a long way, improved a ton. The coaches and ways people here have helped me develop a ridiculous amount. It’s actually insane to watch me from before I got here till now.” 

In 2018 Knack was named TCCAA Pitcher of the year, 2018 NJCCA Second team All-American and 2018 JBB Two-Way Player of the year.

“I was pretty shocked when I saw that honestly, I did not make an All SoCon team last year so I really did not expect to get any sort of recognition for stuff like that,” said Knack. 

Being from Johnson City has a lot of importance to Knack.

“My family gets to come to all the home games; everybody I know gets to come and watch,” said Knack. “That is for sure my favorite part.”

Since being at ETSU, Knack was mentioned on the 2019 Collegiate Baseball Pitcher of the Year Watch List, Finished 2019 with a 9-4 record, ranked second in the SoCon in wins, ranked third in strikeouts looking, ranked fourth in strikeouts and tossed a career high 130 pitches during the Southern Conference tournament against Wofford.

The baseball team is always working through the offseason to prepare for their upcoming season. 

“As a team, I think we have really improved a lot, we added some key hitters that we need, our pitching is going to be really solid again,” said Knack. “I’m excited because this group feels really close together, we don’t have a lot of complainers we have a lot of people that want to work. I think we could have something pretty special and surprise some people this year.” 

You can see Knack and the rest of the ETSU men’s baseball team at home on Friday, Feb 14-16, as they take on Toledo as their first opponent of the 2019-20 season.