Scott Laverty carries the national championship trophy.
Scott Laverty (photo by Larry Radloff)

ABCA honors Laverty as Division III Coach of the Year

ORANGE, Calif. – One more award came through with for the Chapman University baseball team after the conclusion of the Division I season. The American Baseball Coaches Association announced that head coach Scott Laverty as the NCAA Division III National Coach of the Year.

Laverty led the Panthers to the program's third national title in 2019. On the way to the national championship, the Panthers set the school record for wins in a season and set the NCAA Division III record for strikeouts in a season.

Chapman went 44-12 on the year, going 30-9 through the regular season and claiming the school's first SCIAC regular season title. The Panthers hosted the SCIAC Tournament for the first time ever, hosted an NCAA Regional for the first time since 2007 and hosted one of the first Super Regionals in the NCAA Tournament.

Chapman swept through its conference tournament, beat Whitman in a best-of-five regional, swept Concordia (TX) in the best-of-three Super Regional, emerged from the loser's bracket at the NCAA Division III World Series and finally swept Birmingham Southern in the Championship Series.

Laverty is the second coach in Chapman's history to earn the ABCA's top coaching award, joining Tom Tereschuk from 2003. He garnered Chapman's 10th ABCA West Region Coach of the Year honor.

In his 20th season as a head coach, and sixth at Chapman, Laverty claimed his first coaching award with the SCIAC Coaching Staff of the Year honor at the end of the regular season. His owns a career record of 482-345-1 with a record of 184-84 at Chapman.