Blake Nation joined the Towson baseball coaching staff as the pitching coach for the 2022 season and enters his second year with the team.
In 2022, the Towson pitching staff struck out 348 batters, the eighth-best single season mark of all time in program history, with eight different Tigers having at least 20 strikeouts. Cam Clark led the CAA in total appearances with 29 while Jake Pecilunas finished seventh in the league with four saves and became the program's all-time pitching appearances leader.
Nation came to Towson from Hofstra, where he served as the pitching coach for the Pride for three seasons from 2019-21. He coached Jim Joyce, who was selected in the 16th round of the 2021 Major League Baseball (MLB) Draft by the Seattle Mariners after earning All-Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Second Team honors. He worked with several pitching metric programs, including Baseball Cloud, FlightScope, Rapsodo and Synergy.
Previous to Hofstra, Nation was the pitching coach at Florida SW State College from 2017-18, University of Tampa from 2015-17 and East Georgia State College from 2011-13.
He has extensive experience in collegiate summer baseball, being the head coach of the Vermont Mountaineers from 2017-18 and the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs from 2014-17. He earned 2016 Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League Coach of the Year and led the DiamondDawgs to league titles in 2015 and 2017. In total, he coached five all-league players and eight all-stars, including Joe DeSarro being the 2016 PGCBL Pitcher of the Year.
A former 22nd round pick by the Mariners out of Georgia Southern, he pitched in the Mariners organization from 2008-11, including pitching for the high-A team High Desert Mavericks. He also played three years in independent ball, including in the North American Independent League and the Frontier League.
Nation played his college ball at Georgia Southern, graduating in 2012. He earned his Master's Degree in Kinesiology and Coaching at GSU in 2014.
