TOWSON, Md. – The Towson University baseball team welcomes in two new coaches, Blake Nation and Paul Benoit, to the staff for the 2021-22 academic year.
 
Nation is the team's new pitching coach while Benoit is the new volunteer assistant coach.
 
Nation and Benoit join with head coach Matt Tyner and interim associate head coach Tanner Biagini for the upcoming campaign.
 
Nation comes to Towson from Hofstra, where he served as the pitching coach for the Pride for three seasons.  He coached Jim Joyce, who was selected in the 16^th round of the 2021 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft by the Seattle Mariners after earning All-Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Second Team honors.  He formerly had stops at Florida SW State College and the University of Tampa, plus he was the head coach of the Vermont Mountaineers in the New England Collegiate Baseball League.  A former 22^nd round pick by the Mariners out of Georgia Southern, Nation, a 2012 graduate of GSU, pitched six years in the professional ranks, finishing with a 2.78 ERA and 21-6 record.
 
"I am truly honored to be a part of the Towson baseball program," said Nation. "I want to thank coach Tyner for this opportunity. Coach Tyner has developed a strong baseball program and I am excited to contribute to its continued success. I look forward to developing current and future pitchers at Towson to reach their full potential and help players be successful on and off the field."
 
Tyner on Nation: "We are proud to announce the addition of Blake Nation as the new Towson Tiger pitching coach.  It was a group effort sifting through the candidates and our selection committee was drawn to his design for development and his overall even keel approach to handling our players.  I am sure that his energy and approach will be well received and couldn't be happier with our selection.  We knew after Coach Miller departed for High Point that replacing him was going to be tough.  We received several inquiries from qualified coaches; we were impressed by the interest."
 
Benoit joins the Tigers from Ottawa University in Kansas, where he was the infield coordinator and director of analytics.  Four of his infielders earned all-conference honors in 2021, including Rylan Cratsenberg being selected as an NAIA All-American.  That year, he spent the summer as head coach of the Carolina Wolves, leading them to the Southern Shores Collegiate League regular season title.  He also coached at Post, where he assisted an offense that ranked in the top-50 in DII in each home runs per game and slugging percentage, and at St. Pius X Catholic High School.  He played baseball at Carnegie Mellon and graduated in 2019 from Kennesaw State.
 
"I am excited and looking forward to working with a special group of young men and a terrific coaching team here at Towson," said Benoit. "I expect great things are in store for us in the near future."
 
Tyner on Benoit: "Paul Benoit is a talented young coach with a very bright future.  When a coach accepts a paid role you must tip your cap to him, and losing Danny Pulfer to Hendrix University to begin his full-time coaching career left a void in our volunteer position.  Having lost Eric Franc to Heidelberg in early February also depleted our staff.  We sifted through several resumes and found this diamond in the rough.  Paul will be replacing not only Coach Pulfer with infield & hitting responsibilities, but he will also assume the role vacated by Eric Franc of analytics development as well.  A coach with a degree in "Mechatronics Engineering" is also a testament to our belief in having a "Plan B".  We are very excited that Paul accepted the assistant coaching position with us at Towson and can't wait to see him in action."