A Baltimore, MD native and a six-year professional baseball player, Michael Austin joined the Frostburg Baseball staff as the Pitching Coach in 2023 prior to the 2024 season, after spending the previous summer as the manager of the Staunton Braves in the Valley League.
In his first year as the Bobcats’ pitching coach in 2024, Austin helped lead Frostburg to historic levels in their Division II era, helping the team to their best-ever NCAA DII ranking in ERA, walks to strikeout ratio, strikeouts per nine innings, and WHIP, all which were top-20 in the nation. The squad was built around outstanding pitching, finishing 12th in ERA with a team-average of 4.15. Austin led RHP Patrick Bauer to All-Region honors, where Bauer led the team with an ERA of 2.65, a team-high 54 strikeouts, and a WHIP of 1.09. In his first season, FSU reached their first ever NCAA DII Tournament, appearing as the No. 7 seed in the Atlantic Region.
Austin started his college career at Bethune Cookman University, where he won a 2014 MEAC Title and pitched in his first NCAA regional. In 2016, he transferred to UMBC where he earned All-Conference honors and led the team to their first-ever American East Championship and NCAA Tournament in 20 years. After college, Austin was signed by the Kansas City Royals and started his professional career where he logged over 300 strikeouts, threw a no-hitter in 2021, and won the Frontier League Championship in 2022.
Off the field, Austin has helped implement the academic monitoring program at Frostburg, helping the Baseball team reach an overall GPA of 3.16. Austin has a Bachelor's Degree in Psychology from UMBC.
