Matthew Passauer enters his fourth season as the pitching coach for Kennesaw State baseball in 2024 and third as the recruiting coordinator. Passauer joined the Owls in August of 2021 as the first pitching coach hired by head coach Ryan Coe.
Pitching soared during the 2023 season under Passauer's leadership as it was headlined by Blake Aita being selected in the sixth round by the Boston Red Sox. Aita experienced an unrivaled career year landing on the All-Atlantic Sun First Team and the ASUN All-Tournament Team. Reliever Bo Rhudy secured ASUN Relief Pitcher of the Year after compiling a team-high of six saves. The improvement from year to year has been steady as the staff has lowered their team ERA all three years of Passauer's tenure and has a 1.03 ERA improvement from year one to year three. In the off-season, pitcher Braden Osbolt his way into D1Baseball's Top 100 college MLB prospects for the 2025 season.
KSU baseball continues to ascend nationally as the 2024 off season provided several accolades for the program. D1Baseball ranked the Owls the 85th best program in the country, cracking the organizations "Top 100". Perfect Game also highlighted the Owls as they landed three players in the top 500 prospects incoming D-I prospects. PG ranked the Owls as the 44th best recruiting class in the nation, besting three in-state programs (Georgia State, Georgia Southern and Mercer) and the best in Conference USA.
Passauer's second season as KSU's pitching coach was highlighted by Blake Wehunt's selection in the 2023 MLB Draft. The right-handed pitcher was taken in the ninth round by the Boston Red Sox, extending Kennesaw State baseball's streak to 15 consecutive seasons a player has been drafted (excluding the 2020 COVID shortened draft).
Year two of Passauer's tenure featured young arms on the mound. Braden Osbolt, Blake Aita and Agyei Quinichett combined to throw 126.4 innings as true freshman. The trio also tallied five wins, five saves and struck out 109 batters on the season.
In his first season with the Owls, Passauer's pitching staff broke the school record for most strikeouts in a single season with 506. This marked the first time in KSU history that the pitching staff recorded over 500 punch-outs in a single season. Passauer also had two members of his pitching staff selected to the ASUN All-Tournament Team in Jack Myers and Luke Torbert.
During his first year, Passauer developed freshman right-hander Smith Pinson into an ASUN Conference All-Freshmen Team selection. Pinson tossed 65.0 innings for the Owls and finished second on the team with 80 strikeouts. The freshman also tied for the team-lead in wins with six and ranked second with three saves.
Prior to Kennesaw State, Passauer coached at Miami of Ohio for four seasons. He joined the Redhawks in 2017, helping the team win its most games since 2011 with 35. The Erie, Pa. native also had his first two pitchers that he had a hand in developing picked by teams in the MLB Draft with Zach Spears heading to the Pirates and Nick Ernst chosen by the Yankees.
The next season, MU sported the 50th-best staff ERA in the nation with a 3.98 and the 48th-best strikeout-per-nine-inning ratio with 9.1. Passauer's staff also set school records for strikeouts, saves and walks-per-nine-innings.
His last season with Miami was his most successful season of the bunch. Redhawk talisman Sam Bachman was selected ninth overall after an All-American and All-Conference season. Bachman ended the campaign ranked second nationally in WHIP, fourth in hits-per-nine, seventh in ERA and eighth in strikeouts-per-nine. Fellow hurlers Jacob Webb and Grant Hartwig also made it into big-league organizations.
Passauer's staff led the Mid-American Conference (MAC) in ERA, strikeouts, strikeouts-per-nine and batting-average-against while setting school records in strikeouts-per-nine, walks-per-nine and strikeouts in 2021. Among Division I teams, Miami ranked fifth in the nation in strikeouts-per-nine with 11.2 and 16th in ERA with a 3.61,
Prior to Miami of Ohio, Passauer was at the helm of the East Georgia State College program for four seasons. In his tenure, he developed 12 All-Conference players, an All-American, a Georgia Collegiate Athletic Association (GCAA) Player of the Year and a GCAA Defensive Player of the Year.
He set a new school record for wins in 2016, a feat that he repeated the next season. In 2017, Passauer was named that year's GCAA Coach of the Year after winning the conference championship. While at East Georgia, he also coached Richard Lovelady; Lovelady would later transfer to Kennesaw State before becoming a piece in the Kansas City Royals' bullpen.
Passauer got his coaching start in summer league baseball with the Willmar Stingers where he won two division championships and worked with 23 players who were later drafted by MLB teams.
As a player, Passauer imposed his six-foot-seven frame on the mounds of Duquesne, Maryland and Lee University, where he earned his Bachelor of Science in Chemistry. He would later receive a Master of Science in Kinesiology with a Coaching Education emphasis from Georgia Southern.
Passauer lives with his wife, Mary Kate. In the spring of 2022, the couple welcomed their first daughter, Layla Mary. In March of 2024, they welcomed their first son, Chase.
