Keith Shumate is in his fifth season as NSU head baseball coach. In 2021, Shumate led the Spartans to their first-ever MEAC baseball championship and postseason appearance at the Division I level. The Spartans captured their second MEAC Northern Division title in the last two completed seasons, winning 25 games and sweeping through the MEAC tournament unbeaten.
Shumate was named MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Coach in 2021 after becoming the first coach in league history to lead two different teams to the MEAC championship. He first accomplished the feat at North Carolina A&T in 2005.
At the NCAA Regionals, NSU put a scare into host and 13th-ranked East Carolina, falling 8-5 with the potential winning run at the plate in the ninth.
The Spartans piled up the accolades in winning the MEAC title. NSU earned a total of six All-MEAC selections, with Danny Hosley winning MEAC Player of the Year honors and finishing as a finalist for the John Olerud Two-Way Player of the Year award. Leading hitter Alsander Womack won MEAC Championship Most Outstanding Performer honors after his walk-off hit in the tournament championship game.
Following the season, Womack signed a free agent contract with the Chicago White Sox, the first Spartan to sign with an affiliated MLB franchise since 2017.
NSU's 2020 season was limited to 16 games due to the pandemic. In the Spartans' last game of the shortened season, the Spartans beat cross-town foe Old Dominion.
In Shumate's second season leading the Spartans, 2019, NSU won its fourth MEAC Northern Division title in a five-year span, compiling a 17-7 league mark that was the best of any conference program. The Spartans, who went 24-26 overall, advanced out of the winner’s bracket to the championship round of the MEAC tournament, just the third time NSU had achieved that feat in school history, before falling short against Florida A&M.
Shumate was voted the 2019 MEAC Coach of the Year, the second time in his career he had received that honor.
Shumate took over the head post in October 2017 and led the Spartans to a winning MEAC record (13-10) and second-place finish in the conference’s Northern Division in 2018, his first season leading the Spartans.
Shumate is no stranger to NSU or the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference. Shumate served as head coach at North Carolina A&T from 1996-2011. Shumate won 304 games during his tenure leading the Aggies, including a MEAC title and NCAA regional berth in 2005 and a program-record 31 victories in 2010. He was MEAC Coach of the Year in 2002 and the MEAC Tournament Most Outstanding Coach in 2005. The Aggies reached the MEAC Tournament championship round in four of his final seven seasons at the helm.
While coaching the Aggies, Shumate mentored 11 players who signed professional baseball contracts, five of whom were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft. Shumate also coached three All-Americans, three Louisville Slugger Freshman All-Americans and 18 different players earned first-team All-MEAC honors. Two different players earned MEAC Player of the Year honors, and in 2010 Esterlin Paulino won MEAC Pitcher of the Year and Kelvin Freeman earned MEAC Rookie of the Year. In 2011, he was voted “Best Game Coach” in the MEAC in a poll conducted by CollegeBaseballInsider.com.
Following his stint at N.C. A&T, Shumate was head coach from 2013-15 at Louisburg College in North Carolina. He helped the Hurricanes to a first-place regular-season conference finish in 2013 and to a runner-up finish in the Region X Tournament in 2014.
All told, Shumate has coached 17 players who were either drafted by or signed with a Major League Baseball organization.
Shumate’s early career highlights include three years as head baseball coach at Grimsley High School in Greensboro, North Carolina (1994-96), where he coached two Metro 4-A championships teams; 10 years as an amateur summer baseball coach (1986-85); and a stint as an associate scout for the Kansas City Royals from 1995-96.
Shumate attended Western Carolina University, where he played under legendary head coach Jack Leggett and was a member of four consecutive Southern Conference championship teams. He earned his bachelor’s degree in education with a concentration in Spanish in 1988.
