Matt Burns - Softball Coach - Ball State University Athletics

Matt Burns

Title:
Assistant Coach / Recruiting Coordinator
Email:
matt.burns@bsu.edu
Phone:
765-285-5131

Matt Burns enters his second season as a member of the Ball State softball coaching staff in 2025 and his first as associate head coach. He serves as the team’s hitting coach and recruiting coordinator.

"I'm thrilled and honored to announce the promotion of Matt Burns to Associate Head Coach of Ball State Softball,” head coach Helen Peña said. “He's a great teacher of the game, has a talented offensive mind, and cares about instilling life lessons into our players. Coach Burns has been a tremendous asset to this team, my staff, and I'm very excited to see him continue to grow under this new title!"

In his first season as an assistant coach for the Cardinals last season, Burns helped Ball State reach the title game of the 2024 Mid-American Conference Softball Championship at Firestone Stadium in Akron, Ohio.

His coaching helped the Cardinals finish the 2024 campaign with a 29-29 overall record, including a 12-13 mark in MAC play. Ball State secured the sixth and final seed in the conference championship with a 5-2 victory over Central Michigan in its final game of the regular season, and after losing its second game in the tournament to Ohio, won three consecutive elimination games to make it to the title tilt.

Ball State turned in some solid offensive numbers in Burns’ first season, ranking second in the conference and 58th nationally with a 5.16 runs-per-game average. The Cardinals blasted 52 home runs on the season, led by a BSU single season record 25 from McKayla Timmons. One of four Cardinals to collect All-MAC honors in 2024, Timmons also earned a spot on the NFCA All-Great Lakes Region First Team.

The 2024 Cardinals offense also ranked second in the MAC and 28th nationally with 84 total doubles, with four different players collecting 11 on the season. Ball State also finished the season ranked 19th among all NCAA Division I programs with 208 walks drawn, while ranking 75th nationally with a .440 team slugging percentage.

Prior to joining the Ball State staff, Burns spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as an assistant coach at the College of Charleston.

In his two seasons with the Cougars, Burns helped the program make back-to-back Coastal Athletic Association tournament appearances after missing the event in 2021. He helped mentor four players who earned Second Team All-CAA honors, as well as the 2022 CAA Rookie of the Year. His work helped CofC's team batting average jump .025 from before his arrival, with seven of the team's eight returning hitters seeing improvement in both average and OPS from their first to second season under his tutelage.

Before joining the College of Charleston staff, Burns was an assistant at Longwood for the 2021 campaign, where he mentored two players to First Team All-Big South honors and one to Second Team All-Big South accolades. He also helped eight of the 10 returning hitters improve in average, on base percentage and/or slugging percentage from the previous season.

Prior to arriving at Longwood, Burns spent three seasons (2018-2020) at Bucknell, where he helped five Bison earn First Team All-Patriot League honors, five players earn Second Team All-Patriot League accolades and coached one player to Patriot League Rookie of the Year status. He helped the 2018 squad set the program's single-season home record (36) and lead the league in average, on base percentage, slugging, home runs and walks in conference play.

The Bison also led the Patriot League in average, on base percentage, slugging percentage, runs scored, triples, home runs, stolen bases and walks in league play during the 2019 season. Bucknell finished second in the Patriot League in 2018 and 2019, winning 55 games with a 27-8 conference record over the two years.

Burns started his softball coaching career with a two-year stint at Skidmore College for the 2015 and 2016 seasons. There, he worked with five First Team All-Liberty League selections and helped his players earn one NFCA All-America Second Team honor and six NFCA All-Region accolades, with five being first-team selections.

A four-year varsity letterwinner in baseball at Plattsburgh State, including serving as team captain as a senior, Burns started his coaching career as a baseball coach at SUNY Oneonta (2012). He also coached baseball at Bard College (2013), SUNY New Platz (2014) and was a volunteer coach at Akron (2014-15).

Burns graduated from SUNY Plattsburgh in 2011 with a combined Bachelor of Arts/Master of Science for Teachers degree. He will be joined in Muncie by his wife, Danielle, their son, Derek, and daughter, Gabriella.