Nick McIntyre - Baseball Coach (2024)

Toledo has had some of its best offensive seasons with McIntyre as the hitting coach. In 2023 Toledo set new program records for single-season home runs (98) and stolen bases (101), leading the MAC and ranking in the Top 30 nationally in both categories.

In addition to MAC Player of the Year Jeron Williams, three Rockets (Garret Pike, Mason Sykes, and Owen Jackson) had excellent offensive seasons in 2023 and earned All-MAC honors. Sykes became the program’s all-time career home run leader (38) and Jackson slugged a school record-tying 16 homers in his first season with the Rockets. Williams was particularly excellent, earning All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball and All-East Region honors from the ABCA while hitting .403 with 14 home runs, 48 RBIs, 67 runs scored, 16 doubles, four triples, a .681 slugging percentage, .467 on-base percentage, and an incredible 49 stolen bases. He led all of NCAA Division I in stolen bases in 2023 and was selected by the Houston Astros in the ninth round of the 2023 MLB Draft.

Defensively, Toledo set a school record with a .979 fielding percentage, topping the previous mark that had stood since 1976.

In 2022, the Rockets hit .278 and slugged 61 home runs, just the fourth time in school history the team has hit at least 60 home runs in a season. The 346 runs scored are the second-most over the last 10 seasons, and its 85 stolen bases were a new program record. Mason Sykes slugged 16 home runs, breaking the previous single-season record held by Mike Ernst (2000), Ross Adolph (2018), and Chris Meyers (2021). Infielders Garret Pike (second team) and Jeron Williams (all-defensive team) also earned postseason honors from the MAC.

In 2021, the Rockets slugged 64 home runs, one off the previous program record for most home runs in a season. McIntyre helped coach Chris Meyers to a MAC Player of the Year award, the first in Toledo Baseball history. In 2018, the team set the program record with 259 walks, breaking a record that was set in 1977. Individually, Ross Adolph tied the single-season Toledo home run record with 15. Both Meyers and Adolph went on to become MLB Draft picks, being taken by the Detroit Tigers and Houston Astros, respectively.

The 2010 season is the best in Toledo Baseball history. The Rockets set school records for hits (679), runs (431), doubles (150), RBIs (393), total bases (1,043) and at-bats (2,068). In addition, Toledo’s batting average (.328) and home run (62) total ranked second and third in the school’s single-season record book at the end of that season, respectively.

Under McIntyre’s guidance, nine Rocket infielders have made All-MAC honors on 12 occasions, including 2021 MAC Player of the Year Chris Meyers and 2023 MAC Player of the Year Jeron Williams. 2017 Varsity ‘T’ Hall of Fame inductee Joe Corfman, Deion Tansel, Dalton Bollinger, Chris Dudics, and Jared Hoying all earned all-conference distinctions under McIntyre’s coaching as well. Hoying, Meyers, Tansel, and Williams were all selected in the MLB Draft, four of the six infielders drafted during his tenure.

The Rockets have been stellar defensively since McIntyre’s arrival. Four of the top five fielding seasons in school history have occurred since he came to Toledo, including a school-record .979 fielding percentage in 2023. Tansel was a two-time MAC Defensive Player of the Year award winner, while Ross Adolph (2018), Jeron Williams (2022), and Brian Fry (2023) all earned MAC All-Defensive Team honors under McIntyre.

McIntyre came to Toledo following an outstanding career as a four-year starter at Purdue (2000-03) and graduated with a degree in secondary history education. He was a multi-dimensional player for the Boilermakers, starting games at catcher, second base and in the outfield. He appeared in 208 career contests and accumulated a .320 average (242-for-756) with 142 runs scored, 49 doubles and 144 RBIs. A 2003 Academic All-Big Ten honoree, McIntyre wrapped up his four years in West Lafayette ranked fourth in school history in hits, doubles and at-bats, as well as tied for seventh in RBIs and eighth in runs scored and total bases (344).

After graduation, McIntyre was selected in the 20th round of the 2003 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft by the Detroit Tigers. He spent the 2003 season with the Oneonta Tigers in the New York-Penn League, before playing the next two years with the West Michigan Whitecaps in the Midwest League (Low A). He was named the Detroit Tigers Minor League Player of the Month for June of 2005 as well as the Topps Midwest League Player of the Month. McIntyre finished the 2005 season with a .303 average, eighth-best in the league, with 30 doubles and seven home runs.

In 2006, McIntyre was elevated to the Lakeland Tigers (High A) in the Florida State League and also spent time with the Erie Seawolves (AA) in the Eastern League. He led Lakeland with a .283 average, 11 doubles and seven round home runs.

McIntyre is married to former Boilermaker golfer and Sylvania, Ohio native Heather Zielinski. The couple has two daughters, Mia and Morgan and a son, Mason.