Southwest Baptist University Athletics

Chris Martin enters into his 4^th season as head baseball coach at Southwest Baptist University. Coach Martin has led the Bearcats to 70 wins in his first three years, tying the mark for the most wins in a three year period in the program’s history. The run of three straight 20 win seasons also marks only the second time in school history that the Bearcats have accomplished that feat. Martin’s career record sits at 70-81-1 overall and 56-60 in the MIAA.

The 2014 Bearcats set a school record with 29 wins and 24 MIAA wins. The Bearcats first winning season since 1999 produced a #5 seed in the postseason MIAA tournament, a tournament in which the Bearcats would be eliminated in extra innings of the deciding game 3 at Missouri Western. The team set 18 individual or team single season records. Four different Bearcats earned MIAA Player of the Week Awards and nine earned All-MIAA honors. Spencer Blacksher highlighted the list by becoming only the 10^th Bearcat in the programs history to earn 1^st team honors. Blacksher also became only the sixth Bearcat to receive an All-Region award as he was named to the Daktronics, NCBWA and ABCA All-Region 2^nd team making him a Consensus All-Region selection. In doing so he becomes only the second Bearcat to receive multiple All-Region awards. Landon Young was named to the 1^st Team Academic All-American team becoming the first Bearcat in the programs history to garner All-American recognition. Martin was voted the MIAA Coach of the Year by his peers following the season.

Coach Martin led the 2013 Bearcats to a 20-29 record. The win total marked the first time the program has had back to back 20 win seasons since 2005-06. The 2012 Bearcats set our tied five different single season or single game SBU records including a MIAA conference victory total of 18. The Bearcats finished two wins shy of the MIAA post-season tournament. Landon Young was named to the All-MIAA Honorable Mention Team and Zack Winchester was named MIAA Athlete of the Week in February. The Bearcats biggest wins included defeating then #5 Central Missouri State University in late March and the programs first victory vs Missouri Southern since 2007.

Coach Martin led the 2012 Bearcats to a 21-28-1 record, tripling their win total from 2011 and posting the highest number of wins in the program since 2005. The Bearcats tied or set 11 different single season or single game SBU records. The season also produced three All-MIAA selections including 1^st team catcher Drew Miller. Two Bearcats were also named to All-Region teams. Two different players earned MIAA Player of the Week honors and Drew Miller was named the NCBWA National Hitter of the Week in March. SBU’s season was punctuated with a doubleheader sweep of then #8 ranked Emporia State. 

Martin’s teams have also seen success in the classroom. While consistently posting 3.0 GPA’s in his three years, Martin’s teams have accumulated 79 academic awards. He has had three players named a MIAA Scholar Athlete, four players awarded the MIAA Academic Excellence Award and one named a 1^st Team Academic All-American. In his three seasons all 23 of his seniors have graduated or will graduate this year.  

Martin started his coaching career in 2007 as an assistant at SBU. He served in that capacity through 2010. Martin also played at SBU from 2002-06. He was named the MIAA Commissioners Academic Honor Roll three times and was named the Rex Brown Award recipient within the SBU athletics department following his senior season. 

Martin is originally from Iberia, MO. A 2007 graduate of SBU, Martin also received his Masters in Business Administration degree from SBU in the summer of 2009. The Martin family has a total of six degrees from Southwest Baptist University. Martin also serves as a member of the Athletics Administration team in the role of Assistant Director of Athletics/Operations.