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A pair of Panthers are back home. Former LaGrange College standout baseball players Baley Coleman and Adam Dorn are back where they belong —- with the LaGrange College baseball team. The former teammates, who helped the Panthers to their first-ever World Series appearance and a third-place finish in 2022, have returned to their alma mater to accept coaching positions alongside their former head coach, David Kelton.

“I couldn’t be more excited to have Baley and Adam on staff,” Kelton said. “Both of them played five years in our program and excelled on and off the field. They were also a part of some special championship teams with us, including our magical World Series run in 2022.”

That trip to the Division III College World Series and the tragic deaths of teammates Stephen Bartolotta and Jacob Brown in a car accident the night after the team won a conference championship have ensured these two players, and every member of the 2022 LaGrange College team, are bound together by something bigger than sports.

“It’s one of those things where our relationship kind of deepened automatically, just organically. And then obviously, as guys leave the program and move on from that 2022 team, that kind of bond is always and will always be there,” Coleman said. “This team is a family.”

Coleman has stepped into the role as pitching coach for the Panthers. The newly-minted coach knows a thing or two about taking the mound for LaGrange College, having appeared in 49 games with 41 starts across four seasons with the Panthers. 

“I love LaGrange and I love LaGrange College, so when Coach Kelton made that call and offered me a job, it was a no-brainer,” Coleman said, flashing a big grin. “Not many people get to coach at their alma mater.”

The four-year starter accumulated a 24-8 record and a lifetime ERA of 3.73 during his time in red and black.

Coleman parlayed his success at LaGrange College into a chance at playing Division I baseball, transferring to Georgia State for the 2024 season.

“It was a fantastic experience for me to take everything that I learned here at LaGrange College and apply it to the Division I level,” Coleman said. “It really helped me see the game through a different lens, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t LaGrange College.”

Through all this time, the two coaches remained friends. Coleman joined the staff just weeks before Dorn and was excited to hear when the latter got his chance to join the staff and become peers once again.

“I went through some struggles my last year here. I wasn’t throwing it well and was dealing with the transfer portal stuff, and I really let it get to me,” Coleman said. “It was kind of clouding my judgment, so we would have some long phone calls about how to work around that, and I knew I was letting the team down because I wasn’t able to mentally be there every single day, because I had so much stuff going on my personal life with having to move to Atlanta. I let the moment get too big for me, and Adam was always there for me to let me know I would get through it. He could always talk me down from a ledge.”

“When Coach Kelton called me and let me know that Adam was going to be joining the staff as well, I was fired up,” an excited Coleman added.

This will be Coleman’s second coaching position after a brief stint at Georgia Gwinnett College. 

For Dorn, this will be his first experience in the coaching ranks.

“It was definitely a shock to my system. It was, I remember I went outside, went out of the apartment complex, was walking around, and he kind of pitched me the idea, asked if I’d be interested in it,” Dorn said. “Immediately, my heart was racing. It was like ‘Wow, this is actually happening now’… I walked back into the apartment complex, and I think my hands were shaking too, because of the excitement.”

Dorn was expecting to be a volunteer coach on the LaGrange College staff this season, but instead, he is full-time. To get a full-time college coaching gig directly after graduating from college is a rarity at any level. Coleman understands this firsthand, having served as a volunteer coach at Georgia Gwinnett last season, where he saw volunteer coaches grind their lives away.

“There was another coach on the Georgia Gwinnett staff with me, he turned 32 last year, and he was a volunteer,” Coleman said. “And so I think about him being 32 years old as a volunteer, and I turned 26 in September, and I now have a paying job coaching. It’s such a blessing and such lucky timing.”

Dorn spent four memorable seasons in a LaGrange College jersey before hanging up his cleats after the conclusion of the 2025 season. Dorn went out with a bang, putting together his most prolific offensive season of his career, hitting .390 with 73 hits and 39 RBIs, well up from his career averages of .333, 46 hits and 23 RBIs. 

“It was a great year. I feel like I was finally able to play up to my potential. I feel like I’ve had good years in the past, but I always knew there was a little more in me, so to be able to get that out this year was great,” Dorn said. “The year didn’t end like we wanted to, but on a personal level, I was able to be satisfied with the way I played when my head hit the pillow at night.”

Dorn will now be coaching players whom he used to call teammates.

“To go from being their teammates to being their supervisor is a little weird,” he said, chuckling alongside Coleman. “We haven’t got them all back on campus yet, but once we do, I’m sure it is going to take some getting used to.”

LaGrange College is looking to reload after a disappointing campaign earlier this year in which the team finished with a record of 19-23, the first losing season for the program since 2015 and just the fourth losing season the team has experienced since the turn of the century. This was especially disappointing as the team was looking to build on a Collegiate Conference of the South tournament runner-up finish the year prior.

“Last year was a real downer for us,” a serious Dorn said. “We know there are some changes that have to be made and some hard conversations to be had. Coach Kelton has given us a direction to go in. If we left off last year on a sour note, then this year has started on a hopeful note. We feel like we are already making the changes we need to make to put us in a better position heading into next season.”

The duo has taken to their new positions like an old glove, having already helped run Kelton’s summer youth baseball camps. Despite being new to their positions, the two have already set their sights on the 2026 season. 

“We are already on the recruiting trial, and it has definitely been a learning experience for both of us,” Coleman said. “We’ve been going nonstop for over a month now.”