Nate Lawrence joins the Southwest Baptist University Baseball Program for the 2018/2019 season. The Nixa, Missouri native comes to SBU following coaching stints at College of the Ozarks in Branson, Missouri; Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kansas; Eastern Oklahoma State College in Wilburton, Oklahoma; and Paris Junior College in Paris, TX. After seven years of coaching at the collegiate level, Lawrence has gained experience as both a hitting coach and a pitching coach.
At Paris Junior College, Coach Lawrence filled the roles of pitching coach, recruiting coordinator, and strength and conditioning coach for the Dragons. His first season saw all 4 of the graduating sophomore pitchers sign with a Division 1 university (Lamar, Purdue, Nichols State, Texas A&M Corpus Cristie). In the spring of 2017, Coach Lawrence helped the Dragons reach the Region XIV tournament; their first appearance since 2013. The 2018 season featured 5 more pitchers who would sign with D1 schools (Ole Miss, Houston Baptist, Kansas State, ULM, McNeese State) and two sophomores signed with top tier D2 programs (Alabama-Huntsville, Arkansas-Fort Smith).
In the summer of 2015, Coach Lawrence accepted a position with Eastern Oklahoma State College as their Recruiting Coordinator, Hitting Coach, and Head JV Coach. Lawrence helped guide the Mountaineers to winning the Region II Championship - EOSC's fourth championship in seven years. Eastern finished the year with a .325 team batting average, 494 runs, 630 hits, 97 doubles, 21 triples, and 74 home runs. As the recruiting coordinator, Coach Lawrence worked to recruit top tier players from Oklahoma, Arkansas, and Texas. During the Region II tournament in 2016, Eastern had six players receive All Region Tournament Team honors. After winning the Region II tournament, Eastern Oklahoma State traveled to New Orleans to play in the South Central District Tournament hosted by Delgado Community College.
From 2013-2015, Nate served as the Pitching Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Pratt Community College in Pratt, Kansas. At PCC under Coach Lawrence's guidance, the pitching staff saw their wins and strike outs increase while their losses, walks, and ERA decreased. Recruiting classes saw student athletes from five states and four countries. Lawrence became known for his ability to recruit impact players from Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas.
Lawrence's collegiate playing career was at College of the Ozarks, where he went on to become an assistant coach in 2012, helping coach the catchers and hitters.
Lawrence has coached summer collegiate league baseball in Springfield, Mo. in the MINK League and in Sag Harbor, New York in the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League. While serving as an assistant coach for the Springfield Generals, six players went on to play professional baseball including the 2012 MINK League Most Valuable Player, Nick Billinger. Nick finished the summer season batting .416 with 106 hits, 72 runs and 54 RBI. He collected 20 doubles and four home runs.
In the Hamptons Collegiate Baseball League, Coach Lawrence was the head coach for the Sag Harbor Whalers in 2016 and again in 2018. The 2016 Whalers enjoyed a considerable amount of success, and Lawrence was named to coach the pitchers in the HCBL All Star Game. He was also elected to throw in the HCBL All Star Game Home Run Derby. Throwing to Griffin Dey (Yale University), he came in second place by only one home run to Aaron Ping (San Francisco University). In the summer of 2018, Coach Lawrence guided the Whalers to their first playoff berth in 10 years. The Whalers season fell short of a Hamptons Collegiate League championship by just 3 games. The 2018 team featured players from University of Texas-San Antonio, Texas State, Creighton, St. Johns, Boston College, Binghamton, LIU-Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Cal-Berkeley.
Always looking for ways to further his education in baseball, Nate received his certification in biomechanics from the National Pitching Association in the fall of 2014.
After just seven years of coaching college baseball, Lawrence has been fortunate to work with very talented groups of players. Over that span, he has helped send 19 players to move on to play at Division I universities. Sixteen players have received All Conference honors and five players have gone on to play professional baseball.
