NEW ORLEANS – Baseball head coach Andrew Gipson has rounded out his staff with the hires of Joe Craighead and Lance Lauve. Craighead will serve as Director of Pitching Development while Lauve will take over as Director of Data and Analytics.
Craighead comes from a fellow Southland school in Northwestern State where he served as Director of Operations and Player Development. Craighead was in Natchitoches from 2022-25.
While with the Demons, Craighead was part of a 2023 squad that set the program single season for home runs and a 2024 team that was 51
st nationally in ERA. He also served as the team's bullpen coach during his tenure at Northwestern State.
In three years prior to his stop in Northwest Louisiana, Craighead was the Manager of Operations at Louisiana Tech from 2019-22. Most recently, Craighead was the pitching coach with the Acadiana Cane Cutters who finished as the Texas Collegiate League runner-up in 2025.
"I am grateful to Coach Gipson for giving me the opportunity and I am excited to be joining a great coaching staff here at UNO," said Craighead.
Lauve pitched at Southeastern for three seasons and went to Purdue for his final season of collegiate baseball. Lauve appeared in 45 career games for the Lions and struck out 71 batters over 74.2 innings. Opponents hit just .188 off Lauve in 2023 and he struck out six batters in an appearance against Auburn in the 2022 NCAA Regional.
A Holy Cross graduate, Lauve was ranked in Perfect Game's Top 500 nationally and was a top ten ranked pitcher in his recruiting class. He pitched to a career 2.51 ERA in 122 innings with Holy Cross.
"I am excited to be a part of this coaching staff and I'm extremely thankful for the opportunity Coach Gipson has given me to be a part of this team," said Lauve.
QUOTES FROM COACH GIPSON
"I'm excited to add Joe to this group of coaches. He's a good, young coach who cares about development. He's got a really good mind for pitching. He's a steady, calm presence that our players can rely on. I'm glad he's with us on the Lakefront."
"I've known Lance since he was a Junior at Holy Cross and was lucky to coach him for a couple of years in college. He's a fiery competitor and someone our players can look up to. He will help us with all things data related. I firmly believe he has a bright future in this game."
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