Bio

Scott Laverty enters his 11th season as Head Coach at Chapman University in 2023-24. Laverty reached the pinnacle of Division III baseball when he led the Panthers to the 2019 NCAA Division III National Championship - Chapman's third national title in baseball (1968 and 2003). On the way to the title, the Panthers set the school record with 44 wins and the NCAA Division III record with 524 strikeouts.

He was named the D3baseball.com and ABCA Division III Coach of the Year as well as the West Region Coach of the Year and the SCIAC Coach of the Year following the 2019 title run.

The 2019 season marked the first time that the Laverty-led Panthers ended the regular season on top of the SCIAC standings. Chapman hosted and swept through the SCIAC Tournament and was one of the first to host a best-of-five NCAA Regional. After defeating Whitman in five games, Chapman was one of the first to host a Division III Super Regional with the round being added to the Division III tournament in 2019. With a sweep of Concordia (Texas), the Panthers earned their first trip to the Division III World Series during Laverty's tenure. Laverty led the Panthers out of the loser's bracket and into the Championship Series. His Panthers proceeded to sweep a doubleheader from the Birmingham Southern Panthers to win the national.

The Laverty era of Chapman baseball has seen the Panthers win over 68 percent of their games in the last decade. They have made the NCAA Tournament three times in that time period with three consecutive SCIAC Tournament title from 2018-21 and three consecutive regular season titles from 2019-22. Laverty has led five players to All-American honors, including the ABCA 2019 NCAA Division III Pitcher of the Year. The Panthers have also garnered two SCIAC Pitcher of the Year honors as well as one SCIAC Athlete of the Year. Three of his players were drafted between 2018-2020, including 2020 third round pick Nick Garcia. 

In July 2013, Laverty became the 14th head baseball coach in Chapman history and immediately continued the tradition of his predecessors, putting together a 30-win campaign and reaching the SCIAC Tournament championship game in his first year. In 2018, Laverty led the Panthers squad to their first-ever SCIAC Tournament title and first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2013.

Chapman went on to make the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2019, 2021 and 2022 for four consecutive appearances. They advanced to the Super Regionals in 2019 and 2022 - the first two years of the Super Regional round in the Division III tournament (the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2020 tournament and condensed the 2021 tournament). Laverty's teams have qualified for the SCIAC Tournament in all but one season sine he took over the program. He earned his 500th coaching victory in 2021.

Laverty celebrated his 300th head coaching victory in 2014 after amassing 298 wins in 14 previous seasons as the head coach University of Redlands. There he turned around a fledgling program that suffered losing records eight times from 1997-2004 and made it into a perennial contender, leading the Bulldogs to nine straight seasons of .500 or better. Redlands finished in first or second place in the SCIAC five times from 2005-13 including conference titles in '06 and '11 and set the school record with 30 wins each time.

Prior to earning the head coaching job at Redlands, Laverty coached three years as an assistant at UC Riverside (1997-99) alongside legendary Highlanders head coach Jack Smitheran. He also spent the 1997 season on the coaching staff for the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League (Independent). Laverty played his collegiate ball as a shortstop for Riverside, helping the Highlanders to the Division II national finals in 1994.