East Texas Baptist University Athletics

Casey Combs enters his first season at ETBU under Jared Hood for the 2023 season. He will work with Associate Head Coach Tanner Matthews on pitch calling and will coach first base. Bates will coach the outfielders and assist Hood with in-game defensive positioning.
 
Playing from 2016-19, Combs was the 2019 American Southwest Conference Male Athlete of the Year and one of the most decorated student-athletes to play at ETBU. Drafted in the 27^th round as the 801^st pick in the 2019 MLB Draft, he was the fourth NCAA Division III player taken in the draft, as he played two seasons for the Miami Marlins organization. He received two All-American first team selections by D3baseball.com and the ABCA, was the West Region Player of the Year (D3baseball.com, ABCA), the American Southwest Conference Player of the Year, and a CoSIDA Academic All-American third team selection. He also earned All-ASC first team honors and was on the D3baseball.com "Team of the Week," while being the ASC Hitter of the Week twice. He finished ninth in hits at ETBU with 165 and is seventh in RBI (120).
 
During his tenure, ETBU won 112 games including three 30 win seasons. They qualified for four ASC tournaments and were the 2017 ASC Tournament runners-up, while being the Red Division champions. In 2016, he helped ETBU to their first 30-win season and the most ASC wins since 2005 as they were the #2 overall seed in the ASC Tournament and hosted the Red Bracket Tournament Championship.
 
Combs played for Miami in 2019 and 2021 as there was no 2020 minor league season due to CoVID. He finished playing 19 games in the Marlins organization and in 2022 played in 49 games in the Frontier League for the Lake Erie Crushers and Florence Y'Alls.

He graduated from ETBU with his bachelor's degree in 2016 and will be pursuing a Master's Degree while coaching.