July 23rd Towson Summer Prospect Camp
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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 15th nationally in doubles (127), fourth in doubles per game (2.44) and 32nd 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.

The 2025 season will be Ruppenthal’s third as the Towson baseball pitching coach.
Ruppenthal joins Towson after serving as the pitching coach at Oakland University since July. Prior to Oakland, he was the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator at Tyler Junior College. In 2021, Tyler won the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Championship. In addition, Ruppenthal was named the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) DIII National Assistant Coach of the Year. He concurrently served as the head coach of the Battle Creek Bombers, a collegiate summer baseball team, of the Northwoods League from Oct. 2018 to Aug. 2021.
Before Tyler, Ruppenthal held the pitching coach role with Bethany College from Sept. 2017 to Aug. 2018. From 2017 to 2018, the staff ERA improved by 1.3 runs under Ruppenthal’s leadership.
Ruppenthal’s playing career includes two Sun Conference championships with Southeastern University in 2014 and 2017. The team received a bid to the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) National Championship game in 2014, 2015 and 2017. Ruppenthal finished top five all-time in pitching appearances in Southeastern University’s history.
Ruppenthal graduated from Southeastern with a Bachelor of Science in finance with a minor in sport management in 2016. He subsequently obtained his Master of Business Administration from Southeastern in 2018.

J.D. Pulfer, enters his first season as a full-time Towson Baseball assistant coach in the 2025 season.
Pulfer, who worked under Coach Tyner as a volunteer assistant with the Tigers from 2019 to 2021, rejoined the staff in a full-time role in September of 2024. His most recent stop was in Charleston, Illinois, where he was an assistant coach for the Eastern Illinois Panthers of the Ohio Valley Conference. There he was the co-hitting, first base, catching and base-running coach, among other duties during his stint.
Before that, he had various stops in similar roles at Hendrix College, in collegiate summer leagues and served as the head coach of a 15U travel team for Action Baseball in the summer of 2022.
During his playing career, Pulfer was a three-year starter at the collegiate level for the Oregon Ducks under Head Coach Greg Horton. In 2011, he was named the team MVP and an All-PAC 10 first team selection. Pulfer stands among program leaders in multiple offensive statistical categories for the Ducks, including the sixth-most hits in Oregon program history (193).
In the 2011 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft, Pulfer was selected in the 19th round (pick 574) by the Arizona Diamondbacks. He played in the Diamondbacks’ minor league system for two and a half years before joining the American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB), an independent league, to play four more years.
“Whenever you leave a place, you never know if you’ll get the chance to come back. I am extremely grateful and blessed to have the opportunity to return as a Towson Tiger under Coach Tyner. Thank you to Steve Eigenbrot, Lauren Hoskins, and Geoff Gordon for the chance to come back and represent the Black and Gold. I consider Coach Biagini a friend and was saddened but excited for him to move on. He has been very helpful in my late transition back. I am excited to get to work on and off the field. Goh Tigers!” added Pulfer.

The 2025 season will be Aviña’s first as an assistant coach here at Towson. He serves as the infield coach and assistant hitting coach.
Aviña joins Towson after his three-year stint as an assistant coach with Post University (NCAA D2) where he had the same role as he does here at Towson. While at Post he helped the Eagles appear in three consecutive conference championships with his final year winning the conference tournament.
This gave Post its first conference championship and NCAA regional appearance in school history. In the same year he would lead the Post Eagles to a new conference record (CACC) and school record for highest fielding percentage ever at .974, making them the 16th best fielding D2 team in the 2024 season. His infielders would go on to only commit 12 errors in 49 games.
Coach Aviña spent his last three summers coaching in the New England Collegiate Baseball League, one of the nation’s top summer collegiate leagues, where he served as an assistant coach for the Bristol Blues. He served as their infield coach, base coach, assistant hitting coach, and camp director.
In those summers he helped the Blues reach three consecutive playoff appearances, one world series appearance, a record breaking 32-win season, defensive team of the year (2023), two divisional titles, and one All Star nomination as a coach. He helped Towson’s Short Stop, Jordan Peyton, receive Defensive Player of the Year for his standout defensive play in 2024.
During his playing days, Aviña posted a .310 career batting average at Bethesda University of California and made a NCCAA World series appearance.
He also had a later stop at Clarke University at the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) level where he would go on to earn his bachelor’s degree in business administration.
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Towson Baseball Camps
In accordance with NCAA regulations, camp attendance is only restricted by age, and any player who is currently enrolled in high school, or is a rising high school freshman, is eligible to attend.
No baseball camps or clinics owned or operated by MLT Sports Investments, LLC or Matthew Tyner are owned, operated or endorsed by Towson University or the University System of Maryland.