Zach Butler enters his sixth year as the Colonels' pitching coach and eighth year overall with the program. Along with handling day-to-day duties, Butler leads the Red & Gray's efforts in recruiting, coordinates the daily routines for pitchers and assists in organizing practices and game plans.
Five pitchers have been taken in the MLB Draft in Butler’s eight years with the Colonels – LHP Taylor Byrd (Seattle Mariners), LHP Grant Borne (Washington Nationals), LHP Stuart Holmes (Toronto Blue Jays), RHP Ryan Deemes (Houston Astros) and RHP Cole Stapler (Arizona Diamondbacks). Under Butler’s tutelage, Justin Sinibaldi and Byrd earned SLC Pitcher of the Year Honors. Sinibaldi and Holmes additionally earned ABCA/Rawlings All-Region honors.
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The 2019 pitching staff composed the Southland's second-lowest team ERA, posting a 3.53 mark on the season. Senior ace Jacob Bedevian led the way, pitching a team-best and league top five 102.1 innings, racking up 61 strikeouts with a .247 opposing batting average.
In 2017 the Colonels led the league in Pitcher of the Week Honors with four, two each by in Mike Hanchar and Cole Stapler while the the 2015 squad notched the lowest team ERA in the Southland Conference for a second consecutive season.
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Serving as an assistant coach in 2014, Butler helped coach Nicholls to a 32-26 overall record and a 20-10 mark in league action, good for a school best in total conference wins (20).
Butler was hired as a volunteer assistant coach and camp coordinator for the Nicholls baseball team in the summer of 2013 after a stint coaching the Acadiana Cane Cutters of the Texas Collegiate League.
Butler, a graduate of McNeese State University, was drafted in the 34th round of the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays organization and played for the Gulf Coast Rays, Princeton Rays and Charlotte Stone Crabs. During that time as a pitcher he accumulated an overall earned run average of 1.95.
A two-year starter for the Cowboys, Butler helped lead McNeese to the Southland Conference tournament during his senior campaign, earning the title as team captain. Prior to joining the Cowboys, he won two conference championships at Temple Junior College, making an appearance in both tournaments.
Butler resides in Thibodaux, La.
