Austin Straub enters his third season as the head coach of the baseball program.
Straub has a combined record of 40-38 (.513) at Cobleskill. He was won the back-to-back NAC West Division Championships including coaching the NAC Pitcher and Player of the Year in 2022 and was honored as the 2022 NAC Coach of the Year.
In his three seasons as the team's pitching coach from 2020-2022, Straub guided the staff to a 44-34 overall record with a 6.14 ERA in 587 innings of work as Cobleskill pitchers struck out 398 batters on their way to back-to-back NAC Divisional Championships. Under his direction a pair of Fighting Tiger hurlers earned All-NAC Team honors earned Second Team All-NAC, All-NAC First Team and NAC Pitcher-of-the-Year honors in 2022.
Coach Straub joins the SUNY Cobleskill baseball staff from Defiance College for the 2019-20 year. During this two years at Defiance as a full-time assistant, he was the pitching & outfield coach and recruiting coordinator. He played a key part in turning around the baseball program at Defiance. In 2017, the team went 15-25 overall but in 2019 the team improved to 23-16-1, which marked the highest winning percentage since 1995 and the first playoff appearance since 2013 for the program. While at Defiance, he coached two all-conference players and two all-tournament players. As pitching coach he improved the teams ERA from 6.92 (2018) to 5.39 (2019). In 2019, his pitchers recorded 223 strikeouts which is the second highest in program history.
Before his time at Defiance College, he worked for the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod Baseball League from 2014-2017. He was the pitching & catching coach as well as the camp coordinator and recruiter. In his final year with the team, the Whitecaps won the 2017 Cape Cord Baseball League Championship.
During the same time, Coach Straub worked as an assistant coach at Keystone College. From 2013-2017 he held several different positions including pitching coach, catching coach and recruiting coordinator. During the 2014-2017 seasons he helped coach 4 Pitchers of the Year Winners, 10 all-conference pitchers and 6 professional pitchers.
As a player, he played a year at Rider University (Division 1) before transferring to Keystone College. While at Keystone he was a participant in the 2011 NCAA Division III College World Series. He was a two-time Colonial State Athletic Conference All-Conference player. In 2009, he made the NYCBL all-star team while playing for the Sherill Silversmiths. He is also the only Keystone College alumni to have played for and coached for a National Championship at Keystone College.
