Coaching Staff
He has compiled a record of 168-109 (.606 winning percentage), including 112-62 (.629) in Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play, and over the last three seasons the Roadrunners are 111-46 (.707) overall and 73-29 (.716) in league play. MSU Denver has made its first two appearances in the NCAA Division II Tournament over the past two seasons. A total of 28 MSU Denver team records and 17 individual records have been set during Strain's tenure.
Strain directed MSU Denver to a record-setting season and a second straight trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament in 2023, with the team compiling an overall record of 42-14 while finishing second in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference at 25-7. The Roadrunners, who set the program-record for wins, had a school-record 17-game winning streak from March 18 through April 28, and were ranked as high as No. 13 in Division II during the season. They had four different players -- center fielder Tanner Garner, designated hitter Zach Schuler, first baseman Jake Williams, and second baseman Cody Schultz -- earn All-America honors, and Schultz was the Division II Gold Glove winner for fielding excellence at his position. Closer Eric Cox became the RMAC's all-time saves leader, finishing his career with 26, while Garner had a program-record 97 hits for the second and set the program's single-game record of nine RBIs (tying the RMAC record). Ross Smith had program records of 31 doubles, 178 total bases and 81 runs in a season, while Schultz also scored a program-record 81 runs. On the mound, both Jack Slominski and Andrew Hayes tied the program record win nine wins.
The 2023 MSU Denver team led Division II in runs (11.2 per game), slugging percentage (.627), doubles (168) and doubles per game (3.0), ranked second in batting average (.357), home runs (115) and home runs per game (2.05) and were third in hits (708). Smith led Division II in doubles, Garner was first nationally in hits per game (1.87), second in batting average (.453) and third in doubles (26).
Jake Jenkins joined the MSU Denver coaching staff as the pitching coaching in August, 2022.
Since graduation from Division I Pacific in 2016, Jenkins had been with the highly successful Slammers program in the Denver area. As Director of Pitching for the Slammers, he helped in the implementation and development of throwing programs while managing high school and youth level club teams.
Jenkins had also been a video analysis and digitization assistant for 3D Kinematics RND, which analyzes pitchers’ and hitters’ actions through computer and video.
He was the pitching coach at Chaparral High School for the 2017 season. While student-athlete, Jenkins was an intern in athletics facilities at Pacific.
Jenkins pitched for four seasons at Pacific, compiling a record of 15-22 with a 4.44 ERA while striking out 223 in 292 innings. He earned All-West Coast Conference first team honors as a sophomore in 2014, when he was 6-3 with a 2.55 ERA – including 6-1 with a 1.71 ERA down the stretch. He had an excellent senior season as well, going 3-4 with two saves and a 3.79 ERA.
He played at Legend High School, helping the Titans to the Class 5A state tournament as a senior, when he was 5-2 with a 4.23 ERA and 69 strikeouts in 53 innings.
Joe Strain, father of Roadrunners coach Ryan Strain and the son of the former MSU Denver men's basketball coach of the same name, joined his son's staff as an assistant coach for the 2019 season.
In 2021, he helped MSU Denver post the best record in program history at 34-10 and narrowly miss the team's first-ever invitation to the NCAA Division II Tournament.
Joe Strain had been an area scout and national crosschecker with the San Francisco Giants since 1990, part of a 42-year career in professional baseball that included three seasons as a major league player.
A 1972 graduate of George Washington High School in Denver, Strain played collegiately at Northern Colorado, helping the Bears to the 1974 College World Series in Omaha, where they pulled an upset of Arizona.
A four-year starter at shortstop who hit over .300 each season, Strain also played for the USA's silver-medal winning Pan American Games team in 1975. He was a second-team academic All-American, and he is a member of Northern Colorado's Athletics Hall of Fame.
At MSU Denver, he works with the hitters and with the infielders.
Legendary slugger Matt Malkin returned to MSU Denver as a volunteer assistant coach in March of 2022, and was elevated to assistant coach in August of 2022.
During the 2019 season, after transferring from Alabama, Malkin earned All-America first team honors from the ABCA and NCBWA and was the RMAC Co-Player of the Year. He was twice the RMAC Player of the Week, including March 19, when he was named the National Player of the Week by the NCBWA. He was signed by the San Francisco Giants as a free agent after the season, and he played at four different minor-league levels, including a brief stint in Class AAA (he batted a combined .309).
He nearly re-wrote the MSU Denver record book while playing his senior season for the Roadrunners, setting single-season school records for home runs (25), slugging percentage (.908), and total bases (168), while posting the third-highest RBI total (69). His home run total for one season ranked ninth on the MSU Denver career list. He matched the ninth-best hit total (77) in a season at MSU Denver, and posted a .416 batting average. He was in position to win an RMAC Triple Crown until sliding to third in the league in batting average on the final weekend of the season (he still finished first in homers and RBIs). He ranked second nationally in homers, homers per game (0.49) and slugging percentage, and finished third nationally in RBIs per game (1.35), fourth in total bases (168), and eighth in RBIs. He had five two-homer games, 24 multi-hit games, six three-hit games, one four-hit game and three five-hit games.
Malkin became the school's single-season home run leader when he hit his 18th in his 23rd game (the team's 24th of the season) on March 26, capping a streak in which he hit 15 homers in 14 games from March 1 through March 26. He set a school record with at least one homer in seven straight games from March 10 through March 23.
His season-ending batting average was good for 17th nationally, and he also ranked 40th nationally in hits and hits per game (1.51), 92nd in runs (53), 93rd in on-base percentage, 101st in runs per game (1.04). In addition to leading the RMAC in homers and RBIs while ranking third in batting average, he also led the league in slugging percentage, tied for third in sacrifice flies (four), tied for fifth in hits and was 10th in on-base percentage. In league play only, Malkin ranked first in homers (17), second in slugging percentage (.928), fourth in RBIs (42), fourth in batting (as in non-conference play, he hit .416), tied for sixth in hits (52), and 10th in on-base percentage (.486).
Mark Goldsberry joined the MSU Denver coaching staff in August, 2022.
He oversees the Roadrunners' outfielders while also helping instruct the hitters.
Goldsberry was the associate head coach at Cherry Creek High School from 2013 through 2022 after coaching the junior varsity from 1991 through 2006, and he was the head coach at Mountain Vista High School from 2007 through 2010. While on staff at Cherry Creek, one of his players was current MSU Denver coach Ryan Strain.
At Cherry Creek, he was also an assistant athletic director, an assistant basketball coach and a head golf coach.
He has also been a scout for the New York Yankees (1992-93), Cleveland Guardians (1993-95), Los Angeles Dodgers (1997-2004) and San Francisco Giants (2005-07). He has been a scout for Prep Baseball Report Colorado since 2013.
Long-time professional baseball coach and scout Darryl Milne joined the MSU Denver coaching staff in August, 2023.
He helps work with the Roadrunners' pitchers.
Milne spent more than 28 years in scouting, coaching and player development for the San Diego Padres (1984-2002), Boston Red Sox (2002-12) and Baltimore Orioles (2013-19). He has a talent for identifying and resolving biomechanical strengths and deficiencies within a pitching delivery.
With the Orioles, Milne was a special assignment scout responsible for scouting and evaluating professional and amateur pitching prospects for the draft and potential trades. He participated in draft strategy and the formulation of the draft list order for the annual draft.
With the Red Sox, Milne was a national pitching cross checker, responsible for scouting and evaluating the top 10-round pitching prospects nationally while also participating in draft strategy and the formulation of the draft list order. He also served as pitching coach for the Lowell Spinners at the Short-season Class A level in 2003.
Milne was also a national pitching cross checker for the Padres from 1997 through 2002, where he participated in draft strategy and the formulation of the draft list. He was the pitching coach for Idaho Falls at the Short-season rookie level from 1998 through 2001, helping the team to two Pioneer League championships. From 1984 through 1996 he was a Padres area scout for Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, evaluating and signing high school and college prospects. He was also the Padres' Area Code team coach from 1985 through 1997.
He was the head coach at Lakewood High School from 1982 through 1984, leading the team to a state championship in 1982 and to two league championships.
Milne pitched a the minor-league level form 1962 through 1967, reaching Class AAA in each of his last three seasons.
Jordan Price joined the MSU Denver baseball coaching staff in August, 2023.
He works with both the pitchers and position players for the Roadrunners.
Prior to MSU Denver, spent two seasons with the Badlands Big Sticks of the Independence League Baseball Association in Dickinson, N.D. He was the head coach/field manager during the 2023 season after serving as the pitching coach in 2022.
He also worked at Rogue Baseball Performance from 2019-20, where he was a pitching and throwing instructor and was the head coach for the sumer 16U team.
Price became an assistant coach at Valor Christian High School in 2019, coordinating the team's pitching and defense. He also implemented an offseason throwing program and a pitch calling/location system. He continued to work with the team through 2023.
He's been a teacher at Rocky Heights Middle School in Castle Rock, Colo., since 2020. Prior to that he was the head of the physical education depatment and an assistant coach in baseball and football at The Brook Hill School in Bullard, Texas, from 2018-19 and was teacher and assistant coach in baseball and football and Longview (Texas) High School from 2015-17.
Former MSU Denver pitcher Brady Mello joined the coaching staff in August, 2023.
A reliever for three seasons for the Roadrunners, Mello made 22 appearances and was 0-1 with a 6.75 ERA, with 23 strikeouts in 25 1/3 innings. His best season was as a junior in 2022, as he helped MSU Denver qualify for its first-ever trip to the NCAA Division II Tournament while making 14 appearances and compiling a 5.71 ERA in 17 1/3 innings, striking out 15.
Mello spent two seasons at Merced (Calif.) College. ... As a freshman, was 2-0 with one save and a 4.67 ERA, striking out 22 in 17 1/3 innings. ...Three-time Academic All-American and Academic All-Central Valley Conference selection.
At Golden Valley High School in California, Mello was an All-Central California Conference first team selection in baseball, football and wrestling, and was also a 2017 CIF state wrestling qualifier. He compiled career mark of 6-7 with a 4.18 ERA in 23 appearances, with 66 strikeouts in 70 1/3 innings. As a football receiver, he caught 37 passes for 414 yards and eight touchdowns in his career.