Cody Gardner is entering his second season with the Flyer program and serves as the team's pitching coach.
During his first season at Lewis he guided Flyer's pitcher Jake Lotz to being named to National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) All-Midwest Region team (2022)
Gardner spent five years as an assistant coach at GLVC rival Missouri S&T where he helped guide the Miners to a GLVC West Division title and reached the championship game of the NCAA Midwest Regional in 2016. Gardner guided the S&T staff to an earned run average of 4.21, including holding its opponents to a .284 batting average that season. His best season with the Miners came in 2019 guiding the S&T pitching staff to 30 wins, a 3.96 ERA while holding its opposition to a .262 batting average. The Miner pitching staff finished the season with the second best ERA in the GLVC in 2019.
Under his tutelage, seven Miner pitchers earned All-GLVC accolades with Aaron Bedsworth (2016), Dan Borek (2018), Dalton Erger (2019) and Stuart Martin (2019) earning first team honors while Borek (2016), Ethan Krenning (2016) and Conner Forsythe (2019) receiving second team accolades.
Prior to arriving at S&T, Gardner spent four years at Truman State University as a pitcher for the Bulldogs, helping lead Truman to its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance during the 2015 season. The Bulldogs won the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional title and advanced to the Division II Championships in Cary, N.C., where Gardner started the opening game against Mercyhurst and held the Lakers to one run and four hits over nine innings.
In 2015, Gardner tied the Truman single season record for wins as he went 9-5 on the year with a 3.05 earned run average in 112 innings of work. He led the Bulldogs with 59 strikeouts and his 15 career wins are the most by any pitch in Truman history.
Gardner was named to the All-GLVC second team following the 2015 campaign.
He also won five games during his junior year and recorded an earned run average of 3.16 in 62 2/3 innings.
A native of Gray Summit, Mo., Gardner received his bachelor’s degree in 2015 in exercise science and sports management at Truman State and his master's in Industrial and Organizational Psychology from Missouri S&T in 2020. Cody is married to Hannah Gardner with 1 daughter named Ellie Gardner.
