KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee head baseball coach Josh Elander announced the addition of Austin Knight to his coaching staff on Saturday afternoon.
Considered one of the rising stars within college baseball coaching circles, Knight will serve as the Volunteers pitching coach after a highly successful stint in the same role at East Carolina, where he has helped lead the Pirates to five consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including an NCAA Super Regional during his first season as a full-time assistant in 2022.
“We are excited to welcome Austin Knight, his wife Taylor, and his two sons Deacon and Clayton to Tennessee,” Elander said. “Austin has a proven track record of developing pitchers and leading successful staffs that compete at the highest level. He is an exceptional coach and recruiter whose values align with our culture, and we look forward to the impact he will have on our student-athletes and program.”
Prior to being promoted to pitching coach, Knight spent two years (2020-21) as East Carolina’s volunteer assistant coach. During his seven seasons in Greenville, Knight helped the Pirates capture five American Conference regular-season titles (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026) as well as three conference tournament championships (2022, 2026, 2026).
Knight led all aspects of ECU’s pitching development including staff planning, bullpen design, opponent preparation, pitch usage strategy, player development and in-game pitching management.
During his five seasons as pitching coach, ECU led the American Conference and finished ranked in the top 25 nationally in ERA three times (2023, 2024, 2026). The 2023 and 2024 seasons were especially impressive for the Pirates on the mound as they ranked among the national leaders (top 25) in ERA, WHIP, strikeouts per nine innings, strikeout-to-walk ratio and hits allowed per nine innings during both campaigns.
As East Carolina’s pitching coach, Knight has worked directly with nine players that have gone on to be selected in the MLB Draft, including 2024 first-round pick Trey Yesavage. Yesavage needed just one year to reach the Major Leagues for the Toronto Blue Jays and was the Game 1 starter for them in the 2025 World Series.
Including Yesavage, who was the American Conference Pitcher of the Year, the Pirates 2024 pitching staff produced two All-Americans and three MLB Draft picks.
Wyatt Lunsford-Shenkman was a Golden Spikes Award semifinalist, NCBWA Stopper of the Year Award finalist, Baseball America First Team All-American and a 16th round pick of the Seattle Mariners in 2024. Erik Ritchie was taken in the 19th round by the Philadelphia Phillies, as well.
Of the nine MLB Draft picks that Knight has mentored and helped develop, three were chosen in the first round and four have gone on to pitch in the Big Leagues.
Five pitchers have earned All-America status under Knight’s guidance at ECU in Ethan Norby (2025), Lunsford-Shenkman (2024), Yesvage (2023 & 2024), Carter Spivey (2022) and Zach Agnos (2022).
Spivey was the first relief pitcher in American Conference history to win the league’s pitcher of the year award, while Agnos is in the midst of his second season in the Majors with the Colorado Rockies.
Prior to his time at East Carolina, Knight spent two seasons as the Volunteer Assistant Coach at Louisiana Tech (2018-19) and two years as a graduate assistant at Little Rock (2016-17) following a four-year playing career at Ole Miss (2012-15) in which he played in 120 games and helped the Rebels reach the 2014 Men’s College World Series.
Knight also spent two summers (2016-17) coaching in the Cape Cod League for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.
