Laurin Watts

Biography

Laurin Watts completed her second season as Southern Illinois' pitching coach in 2026. Watts was announced as the team's pitching coach on July 16, 2024, by head coach Jen Sewell. Southern Illinois had one of the conference's top pitching staffs in 2026 under Watts, finishing the season with a team ERA of 2.91. This ranked second in the league. Against Valley opponents, SIU's ERA was 2.11, also ranking second in the MVC. Two pitchers received All-Conference recognition at the end of the year as Brooklynn Danielson was named the MVC Freshman of the Year and earned a spot on the All-MVC First Team, while Emily Delgado was named the MVC Newcomer of the Year. In her first season in the role, the SIU pitching staff had the second-best team ERA in the MVC at 3.18. Southern Illinois won its second consecutive MVC regular season championship in 2025. "We have been anticipating this big announcement for a while now and I'm so glad we were able to get Laurin on board with us here at Saluki Softball," Sewell said. "Laurin is one of the top up-and-coming pitching coaches in the country. Her name just kept coming up every time I asked about who is the next big pitching hire." Watts came to Southern Illinois after spending five seasons at Southern Utah. In the fall of 2023, Watts was promoted to Associate Head Coach of the Thunderbirds. During her time in Cedar City, Watts worked with both the pitching and catching staffs, and also served as the program's lead recruiter. "Laurin is not onl