Matt Ellinghuysen enters his seventh season overall with the Bemidji State baseball program in 2022 after being named the interim head coach on May 21, 2021. Ellinghuysen previously coached as an assistant from 2014-16 and played for the Beavers from 2010-13.
Bemidji State finished the 2022 season 6-40 overall and 3-29 in the NSIC. The Beavers recorded three of its wins during the team’s spring trip to Tucson, Ariz., and totaled 19 games decided by two runs or less. Senior pitcher Travis Carruth ended his career with the most appearances on the mound in BSU history, third in saves, fifth in fewest walks allowed/9 innings and 10th in opposing batting average. Senior pitcher Jackson Back ended his career in 2022 with 100 strikeouts, which ranks ninth all-time at BSU, while senior Parker Borg finished with 15 home runs to, which ranks seventh in program history. The Beavers totaled six selections to the 2022 Spring NSIC All-Academic Team, including multiple career selections by Stephane Lagasse, John Perkins and Carter Simon.
The Beavers returned to a full schedule in 2021 to finish with an 8-32 record overall and 7-28 mark in the NSIC. Junior first baseman/designated hitter Sam Kalberer earned a spot on the 2021 NSIC All-Conference Second Team, the program's first selection to the team since 2018. Kalberer ranked 10th in the NSIC in walks and 16th in total hits. BSU won a season series against the University of Mary, 6-4 and 13-8, on Wednesday, April 28 and finished the season with an 11-10 victory over the University of Minnesota Duluth.
During a shortened season in 2020 due to COVID-19, Bemidji State opened the season with back-to-back wins over Rockhurst University at the U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis. The Beavers fell in the following 10 games while the season was canceled following its spring trip that was completed on March 11. At the conclusion of the shortened season, senior outfielder Noah Boser ranked among the top 10 in the NSIC in triples (4/t-1st), on-base percentage (.509/5th), and batting average (.409/8th).
Ellinghuysend spent two seasons as a graduate assistant coach for Southwest Minnesota State from 2017-18. During his time at SMSU, the Mustangs totaled three all-conference players and won 32 games.
Prior to joining SMSU, Ellinghuysen began his intercollegiate coaching career at BSU as an assistant coach from 2014-16. He coached two-time all-conference selection Tyler Nelson and all-conference selection Gunner Olszewski during his first stint with BSU. Ellinghuysen also served as the head coach for the Steamboat Storm summer baseball team in Steamboat Springs, Colo., during the summers of 2015 and 2016.
Ellinghuysen, a St. Charles, Minn., native, played third base for Bemidji State from 2010-13. In 124 games (113 starts) at third for the Beavers, Ellinghuysen was a career .283 hitter and compiled 100 hits, 58 RBIs and 30 runs scored. In the field he totaled 149 assists with 64 putouts.
His most productive season at the plate came his senior season when he started 47 games and batted .333 with 49 hits, 31 runs, 30 RBIs and 10 doubles. He was hit by a pitch more than any other player in the Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference (24) and owned a .438 on-base percentage to rank 15th in the NSIC.
Ellinghuysen graduated from BSU in May 2013 with a degree in sport management and a minor in mass communications. He earned his master's degree in physical education from Southwest Minnesota State in 2018. He and his wife Jessica, a BSU grad and former Beaver Women's Hockey student-athlete, reside in Bemidji with their son, Milo.
