Brett Peel - Baseball Coach - Southern Illinois University Athletics

Brett Peel

Title:
Hitting Coach
Email:
brett.peel@siu.edu
Phone:
618-453-3794

2023 was Brett Peel's 3rd season as SIU's hitting coach and its 3rd base coach.

In 2022, for a second consecutive year, SIU finished in the top 2 in the Missouri Valley Conference in batting average, slugging percentage, on base percentage, hits, runs, RBIs, home runs in 2002, Peel's second season as the team's hitting coach. The Salukis set the school record for home runs in a single season for the second consecutive season, 88. They tallied the second most hits (623), second most runs scored (459) and second most RBIs (422) in school history in 2022.

The 2022 team's offense featured the MVC Player of the Year, Kaeber Rog. Rog was also the MVC's Newcomer of the Year. OF/1B J.T. Weber joined Rog on all the All-MVC First Team from the team's offensive side. 2B Grey Epps and 3B Ryan Rodriguez were Saluki hitters who made the All-MVC Second Team. OF Nathan Bandy made All-MVC Honorable Mention.

Southern's hitters also made history in Peel's first season as their coach, 2021.

SIU went 40-20, which was the most wins for the program in 31 years. The Salukis were one of the best offensive teams in the nation in 2021, ranking among the top-20 nationally (of 286) in hits (10th), slugging percentage (10th), home runs (15th), and runs scored (16th). Defensively, SIU ranked seventh in the the nation in double plays.

Southern Illinois hit several milestones with Peel on its staff. The Salukis won 19-straight games overlapping the 2020 and 2021 seasons, which was the longest at SIU since 1974. SIU's 14-0 start in 2021 was the best start in program history. The 2021 Salukis hit 84 home runs, which shattered the previous program record of 75 homers set in 1998. SIU also finished the 2021 season with an RPI of 82, the best for the program since 2007. SIU collected five wins over the RPI top-50, six wins over teams that made the NCAA Tournament, and nine wins over the RPI top-100, including a four-game series split with Dallas Baptist, who went on to advance to a Super Regional, and a road series win at Indiana State, which made the NCAA Tournament field as an at-large team.

Individually, SIU had six players make the All-MVC teams and four earned MVC Player of the Week honors during the season. Tristan Peters and J.T. Weber were named to the All-District First Team, and Peters was named to the MVC All-Defensive Team. Shortstop Nick Neville hit 17 home runs, breaking a 41-year-old program record for home runs in a season.

Peel came to SIU from Missouri, where he played (2014-15) for then-head coach Tim Jamieson and later coached (2017-19) with SIU's current head coach Lance Rhodes. Peel started his coaching career with the Tigers as a graduate assistant and was elevated to volunteer assistant coach in 2018. He developed multiple MLB Draft picks, including first-rounder Kameron Misner.

In Peel's tenure at Missouri, he was responsible for defensive development of infielders and outfielders, and the 2019 Tigers had the second-best fielding percentage in program history. Offensively, that 2019 team set a school record for stolen bases with 101.

Peel also helped the Tigers win 36 games in 2017, the program's highest win total in a decade. That team also went on a 20-game winning streak, which was the second-best in Missouri history.

A St. Charles, Mo., native, Peel was a standout second baseman at Missouri. Hitting leadoff as a senior, Peel scored a team-best 40 runs for a 30-win Missouri team and stole 22 bases, third-best in program history. Prior to his two seasons at Missouri, Peel played two seasons at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, Mo. hitting .336 in 2013.