Tyler Shrout enters his ninth season at Samford and his first as associate head coach. Shrout serves as the Bulldogs’s pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.
Over the last eight seasons, Shrout has been a major contributor to the Bulldogs’ success, as the team has averaged 36 wins per year in each of its full seasons from 2014-2021, and was off to a red-hot 13-2 start in 2020 prior to the cancelation of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Shrout’s contributions helped lead the Bulldogs to SoCon Tournament championships in 2018 and 2021, and a regular season SoCon championship in 2019. In the 2018 season, after winning the SoCon Tournament, Samford went on to upset No. 7 national seed Florida State in game one of the Tallahassee Regional, recording one of the biggest wins in program history. In 2019, the Bulldogs won a school-record 41 games en route to winning the SoCon regular season title for the first time.
In 2021, the Bulldogs earned anothern bid to the NCAA Tournament, competing in the NCAA Starkville Regional against eventual national champion Mississippi State.
Under Shrout’s guidance, the Bulldogs’ pitching staff has finished in the top three in Southern Conference team ERA in all seven of his seasons, including leading the conference on three occasions (2016, 2017, 2018). After the 2017 season, Shrout was named the Assistant Coach of the year by the Alabama Coaches Baseball Association. In 2018, Shrout earned that same honor at the SAMSPY’s, given to the top Assistant Coach in Samford’s Athletics Department.
Prior to the 2017 season, Shrout was promoted to Recruiting Coordinator. Other responsibilities at Samford include assisting in academic progress, overseeing the travel budget, and team scheduling.
In Shrout’s tenure with Samford, the Bulldogs’ staff has had five pitchers selected as First-Team All-SoCon, as well as one Freshman of the Year (Sam Strickland, 2018) and one Pitcher of the Year (Zach Hester, 2019). During Shrout’s seven seasons, the Bulldogs have also had three pitchers selected in the Major League Baseball draft, with another three signing free agent contracts.
Shrout came to Samford in the summer of 2013 after spending the previous four years on the coaching staff at Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tenn. Shrout excelled as the pitching coach at Lipscomb and was promoted to Recruiting Coordinator during his final season.
In 2012, Shrout’s pitching staff recorded the second lowest ERA in the school history, while his 2011 group set a school record for the most strikeouts and finished the season ranked 18th in the nation in that category. During his tenure at Lipscomb, three of Shrout’s pitchers were taken in the Major League Baseball draft.
From 2006 to 2009, Shrout served as the pitching coach for Birmingham-Southern College. In Shrout’s last season at BSC, the Panthers’ pitching staff led the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference in team ERA and helped lead the team to its first SCAC title. Shrout helped recruit two players to Birmingham-Southern who were later selected in the MLB Draft.
In addition to his collegiate coaching experience, Shrout served as the head coach of the Alabama Bombers for two summers (2008-09), and was the pitching coach for the Kentucky Baseball Club in the summer of 2006.
Shrout played four seasons at Transylvania University in Lexington, Ky. He is the school’s all-time leader in career ERA and is ranked in the top five in nearly every pitching category. Shrout graduated from Transylvania in 2006 with a degree in business administration with a concentration in finance.
Shrout married his wife, Lexi, in the summer of 2013. Lexi currently serves as the head softball coach at Hoover High School. The couple has a son, Brycen Myers Shrout and a daughter, Hadley Ann Shrout. The family resides in Vestavia Hills.
