Former South Carolina assistant Matt Williams hired by Coastal Carolina as their pitching coach, per report

Former South Carolina assistant Matt Williams is being hired by Coastal Carolina as their pitching coach, according to Kendall Rogers of d1baseball.com. He spent last year with the Gamecocks and previously had spent four seasons as the associate head coach and pitching coach at Liberty.

Last season, the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers had a solid season, finishing 36-25 overall and 16-14 in conference. They advanced to the 2024 NCAA Tournament to the Clemson Regional, where they won two games but also lost two games. They throttled the Vanderbilt Commodores 13-3 and defeated High Point 6-5. Both of their losses came to the Clemson Tigers. The first one they lost 4-3 and the second one they lost 12-5.

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More on the coaching career of Matt Williams over the years

One of the more talented pitching coaches in the game, Williams has had four pitchers go on to win Conference Pitcher of the Year. He’s also had numerous other players win All-Conference honors. Williams coached Dylan Eskew in 2024, who went from pitching 7.2 innings in 2023 to 62.2 in 2024, winning three games. Chris Veach had a team-high 26 appearances and had 54 strikeouts in 44.2 innings, posting five wins and three saves.

Before joining the Gamecocks, Williams spent four years with the Liberty Flames as their pitching coach. The Flames advanced to the 2022 NCAA Gainesville Regional, after earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. Liberty finished with a 37-23 overall record and an ASUN East Division crown. The Flames were among the top teams in strikeouts in 2022, averaging 10.4 strikeouts per every nine innings (ranking them 15th in the nation in that stat category). Liberty also ranked 19th in the country in strikeout to talk ratio (2.79) and 32nd in ERA (4.29).

Williams’ first full season with the Flames in 2021 was one of the most successful in Liberty baseball history. The Flames landed an NCAA Tournament bid for just the second time in program history, posting an overall record of 41-16 that set the school mark for winning percentage at the Division I level. Their pitching staff ranked among the nation’s best. Liberty’s staff ranked fifth in the nation in runs allowed per game (3.6), 12th in ERA (3.57), ninth in WHIP, 15th in shutouts (six), and 13th in hits allowed per nine innings (7.60). Lefty Trevor DeLaite led the staff, becoming the first pitcher in Liberty history to be named a National Pitcher of the Year finalist and earn All-American honors.

In 2019, Williams worked in a variety of roles with the San Diego Padres. And before that, he spent five seasons with the UNC Wilmington Seahawks, working with 17 pitchers that would eventually have their names picked in the MLB Draft.