ATHENS, W.Va. – Concord University head baseball coach
Kevin Garrett has announced the promotion of
Trent Abernathy to a full-time assistant coach for the 2024 season.
Abernathy, a former standout pitcher for the Mountain Lions, just concluded his second season as the graduate assistant for the program. The Harrisonburg, Virginia native will continue to work primarily with the Mountain Lion pitchers while also continuing his role as the program's recruiting coordinator.
This spring, Abernathy helped tutor
Andrew Neff to MEC Pitcher of the Year honors as well as mentoring Neff to break the single-season program record for wins (12) and strikeouts (95). Additionally, Abernathy saw the growth of
Rylee Nicholas as his production made an uptick as the season progressed. In nine of his last ten outings of 2023, Nicholas surrendered two runs or less while striking out 45 batters in 49 innings.
With Abernathy's assistance, Concord struck out 325 batters on the mound, third most in program history, led by 95 from Neff, 73 from
Eddie Blake and another 69 from Nicholas. Over the last two years, the Mountain Lions have struck out 676 opposing batters.
In addition to Neff, Blake and Nicholas earned All-MEC accolades on the all-conference honorable mention list.
During his playing days (2017-2021), Abernathy himself piled up 223 strikeouts, fourth in program history, over 209 innings while earning All-MEC twice.
CU is coming off a season where it went 29-21 that included a 23-7 record in conference games.
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