Story by Gage Johnson, Staff Writer

Murray State baseball has hired Cole Brocker to its staff as an assistant and pitching coach.

Brocker is no stranger to baseball at competitive levels. He spent his 2010-2011 season at Sacramento City College before playing at Oregon State from 2012-2013.

Brocker spent his years in professional baseball with two different teams. His first two seasons in 2014-15 and 2015-16 were spent with the Atlanta Braves, before spending his final two seasons in 2016-17 and 2017-18 with the Chicago Cubs.

While at Oregon State, Brocker said he formed a relationship with a coach that shaped him into the coach he is today.

“I’ve had a lot of coaches that have impacted me in positive and negative ways,” Brocker said. “Nate Yeskie, the Oregon State pitching coach, is definitely one of the positive ones. He’s taught me many things, but maybe most importantly he was the only coach I remember to have higher expectations of me than I did of myself. I want to bring that to whoever I coach because those expectations changed my life for the better and gave me a pretty great opportunity to chase a lifelong dream of playing Major League Baseball.”

Despite the hardships faced in his professional career, Brocker said it’s something he would never trade anything for.

“Minor League Baseball is hard to sum up in just a few sentences,” Brocker said. “It’s not perfect and something that I took for granted at times. But it is without a doubt something that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.”

The Minor Leagues are teams under a Major League Organization and are intended to prepare players for the next level. Brocker believes his time in the minors will make him a better coach and help inspire players to chase their dream of playing baseball professionally.

“I think my experience in minor league baseball will help me and the players on our team understand what players at the next level look like,” Brocker said. “As well as knowing first hand what it takes to get to the next level. In my eyes, I can’t control if one of my players gets an opportunity to play pro ball or not, but what I can do is my best to prepare my guys to be ready to take full advantage of it when one comes their way.”

Having been out of baseball for several months, becoming a coach at Murray State has allowed Brocker a chance to get involved with the sport he loves again.

“Personally, I missed baseball like crazy,” Brocker said. “That’s my biggest passion, and life without it just wasn’t the same.”

He didn’t want to just be a part of any organization, he wanted to be involved in an organization that is all for its players while still winning games.

“I chose Murray specifically because of the coaching staff and the direction the team has been going,” Brocker said. “Coach Moulder and the rest of the staff are very committed to player development. He made that very apparent to me in my interview and I couldn’t think of a better environment to come into.”