Towson Baseball Individual Skills Camp

The 2025 season will be Matt Tyner’s seventh at the helm of the Towson University baseball program.

The 2022 campaign saw Towson finish in a big way, earning a series win over CAA regular season champion Charleston, capped by a walk-off home run by Chandler Castleberry on Senior Day.  Towson had two players earn All-CAA honors for the first time since 2016: Jack McLaughlin earned All-CAA Second Team while Elijah Dickerson was Honorable Mention All-CAA.

In 2021, Towson earned a berth in the CAA Tournament for the first time since 2013, notching second place in the CAA North and 21 total victories, the most for the team since 2014., including series victories over Delaware and George Mason.  Kody Reeser became the first pitcher since 2012 to earn All-CAA honors while the team also set a program record for strikeouts pitched with 419.  Of players who played at least 30 games, four of the top five in batting average were newcomers to the roster.

Tyner’s first two seasons came in 2018-19, then he took temporary leave for the shortened 2020 year due to the COVID-19 outbreak, returning in May 2020.

Year two under Tyner saw the Tigers make important strides as a program, including winning two CAA series plus earning a mid-week win at Power Five opponent Penn State.  Javon Fields became the first Towson player to be a CAA All-Rookie Team member since 2016 while the Towson pitching staff went from a 7.31 ERA in 2018 to a 5.59 ERA in 2019.  The top five players in batting average in 2019 were all newcomers to the Towson roster.

In his first year with the Tigers in 2018, Richie Palacios was named All-CAA Second Team, hitting .301 with eight home runs and 18 doubles, and was drafted in the third round by the Cleveland Indians, the highest Tiger drafted since 1988.  Three players, Palacios, Billy Lennox and Colin Gimblet hit above .267 with multiple home runs and at least eight doubles.

“We are very excited for Matt to be our next head coach,” said Director of Athletics Tim Leonard.  “We had a very talented candidate pool and Matt stood out with his vision of turning this program into a contender.  His success as a player and coach, as well as in the business sector, made him the ideal person to be the next head coach at Towson.”

“First off, I want to thank God for this opportunity,” said Tyner. “Secondly, I want to thank President Kim Schatzel and Athletic Director Tim Leonard for having the faith and the trust in me to guide the Towson University baseball program.  I am very excited for this opportunity as it fulfills a life-long dream.

“I fully understand the responsibility that has been given to me and I will promise to uphold the Towson University values and mission statement to the best of my ability. I look forward to meeting everyone, including the members of my new team, the alumni, the administration and staff, and all of those fans of Tiger Athletics.

“The amount of support and level of commitment that I have received from Tim and his staff continues to show me that Towson baseball has a bright future ahead. I look forward to hitting the ground running with my new team.”

Tyner comes to Towson after spending the previous four seasons as the assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Richmond.

In his tenure as the team’s hitting coach, the Spiders ranked at or near the top of the Atlantic 10 in several offensive categories.

This past season, Tyner helped run an offense that finished in the top five in the league in average (.280), hits (522) and doubles (103).

In 2016, Richmond ranked in the top 20 in the country with a .308 average, its highest in over a decade.  The team also ranked 15^th nationally in doubles (127), fourth in doubles per game (2.44) and 32^nd in slugging percentage (.454).

Tyner’s second season with the Spiders saw the team put up some of the best numbers in nearly a decade.  The team led the conference with 57 home runs, while adding the most RBIs (337) since 2007.

Prior to his time in Richmond, Tyner spent two seasons as the head coach at Bellarmine University in Kentucky.  He posted a 60-46 overall record and led the Knights to the GLVC championship in his second season.

He took over the program at Bellarmine after completing two different stints as the top assistant at Butler.  During his seven years in Indianapolis, Tyner also coached several youth teams, winning back-to-back under-17 national titles as an assistant for the Indiana Bulls.

A highly successful collegiate player in his own right, Tyner was a four-year starter for the University of Miami, where he helped lead the Hurricanes to three College World Series. A power hitting outfielder, Tyner was named the 1980 Baskin Robbins Player of the Year and tied the Miami home run record.

Tyner was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the ninth round of the 1980 Major League Baseball Draft. He spent four years in the Orioles system, leading the entire organization in home runs in 1981 with 33, while hitting .301. His professional career came to a halt in 1983 after multiple surgeries for bone chips in his right elbow.

A native of Decatur, Illinois, Tyner completed his bachelor’s degree in business communications at Concordia University’s Indianapolis campus.