The day before he officially became Southeast Missouri State’s athletics director in 2012, Mark Alnutt was stuck in St. Louis without a car and needed a ride to Cape Girardeau.
SEMO baseball assistant coach Steve Bieser happened to be in the area on a recruiting trip. He happily picked up his new boss for the 90-mile drive down Highway 55. They talked the whole drive.
"From that moment I knew this guy is good. Very good," Alnutt said.
Prior to taking over head coaching duties at SEMO in 2013, Bieser spent the 2011-2012 seasons as the Redhawks' pitching coach, and his knack for developing talented arms carried over into his head coaching tenure.