Matt Gardner - Baseball Coach - University of Houston Athletics

Matt Gardner

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
mrgardne@Central.UH.EDU

Matt Gardner was hired as an Assistant Coach by Todd Whitting on June 18, 2025 with the 2026 season the first with the Houston Cougars. Gardner, who will serve as the pitching coach for the Cougars, boasts four trips to Omaha with Texas Tech and eight NCAA appearances with the Red Raiders.

Gardner comes to Houston after 12 successful seasons at Texas Tech which included four College World Series appearances and 37 MLB Draft picks under his tutelage. Gardner has overseen pitching staffs and has also worked with catchers and outfielders during his time in Lubbock.

Gardner guided the Red Raiders pitching staff to unprecedented heights when they set a school record for pitchers selected in the MLB draft in 2015 with five, set another record in 2016 with six, and again in 2018 with seven. In 2021, five Red Raider pitchers were drafted and four more in 2022. Sixteen Red Raider pitchers were taken in the first eight rounds over the last seven years in Matt Withrow, Corey Taylor, Dominic Moreno, Ryan Moseley, Parker Mushinski, Steven Gingery, Caleb Kilian, Clayton Beeter, Bryce Bonnin, Mason Montogemery, Ryan Sublette, Hunter Dobbins, Patrick Monteverde, Andrew Morris, Brandon Birdsell and Chase Hampton.

The Red Raiders posted 45-win seasons for four consecutive years from 2016-19, combining for 183 victories over that span which is the most for Tech since 1995-98. After Gardner's promotion, Tech continued elevating the trajectory of the program by making its first-ever back-to-back College World Series appearances in 2018 and 2019 while capturing the 2019 Big 12 Championship.

In 2023, the Red Raider arms posted a sub-5.00 ERA on the season and ranked fourth in the Big 12 Conference with a 4.99 ERA. The stable of arms helped lift Texas Tech to a 40+ win season for the first time since 2019 and an appearance in its seventh-straight NCAA Postseason.

In the 12 seasons on staff at Texas Tech, Gardner helped guide the Red Raiders to eight NCAA appearances, five Super Regionals and three trips to Omaha.

Before arriving at Texas Tech, Gardner was the pitching coach for the Chatham Anglers in the Cape Cod League during the summer of 2013. He helped lead the Anglers to the President's Trophy, awarded annually to the team with the best overall record (26-17). During his summer in the Cape, Gardner coached Red Raider catcher Hunter Redman and right-handed pitcher Dominic Moreno.

He joined Texas Tech from crosstown Lubbock Christian University after he helped lead the Chaps to a 44-17 overall ranking and a national ranking that jumped to as high as No. 4 nationally during his final year. LCU set a school record following that season with three Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft selections.

During his two campaigns at LCU, the Chaps won 79 games, had 12 All-Sooner Athletic Conference selections and six NAIA All-America selections. LCU received a national ranking during every week of the season during Gardner's two seasons with eight rankings inside the top 10 in the nation.

While at Oklahoma State, Gardner assisted then-head coach Frank Anderson with the pitching duties during the 2010-11 seasons and worked with the team's catchers as a graduate assistant coach in 2009. Gardner coached 21 MLB draft picks at Oklahoma State – 10 of which were pitchers while five OSU players were selected in the top-10 rounds of the MLB Draft. In addition to coaching over 20 draft picks at his alma mater, Gardner mentored 18 All-Big 12 selections, 21 Academic All-Big 12 honorees, two Big 12 Pitchers of the Week and one All-American.

Gardner's coaching career also includes a pair of assistant coaching stints at the junior college level while coaching the fall of 2009 at Ranger College and the fall of 2010 at Midland College.

A Friday-night starter at Oklahoma State for two seasons, Gardner was an All-Big 12 selection and Academic All-Big 12 award winner during his three-year career (2006-08) as a student-athlete. He helped lead OSU to three-consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, which included a trip to an NCAA Super Regional in 2007. Gardner and the Cowboys captured three straight 40-win seasons, something that hadn't been accomplished in Stillwater since 1997-99.

Gardner earned his bachelor's degree from Oklahoma State University with a degree in education in 2008. He is originally from Andrews, Texas, graduating from Andrews High School in 2004.

Gardner was born in Lubbock on Nov. 2, 1984. He and his wife, Laiken, were married in October 2015 and have a daughter and a son.