James Leverton - Baseball Coach

James Leverton

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
James_Leverton@baylor.edu

James Leverton spent two seasons as Baylor’s pitching coach. A former assistant under head coach Mitch Thompson at McLennan Community College, Leverton returned to Waco for two seasons on staff in 2023 and 2024.

In 2024, Leverton mentored junior right-hander Mason Marriott, who threw 69.2 innings as the Friday night ace for the Bears, racking up a 3-7 record with a 5.94 ERA. Marriott struck out 65 batters and walked 37 on his way to being a sixth-round draft pick by the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Sophomore southpaw Ethan Calder also emerged under Leverton’s tutelage, posting a 5-3 record and 3.23 ERA across 55.2 innings pitched. Calder earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention praise after striking out 41 batters and walking just 12.

Leverton helped the Baylor pitching staff rack up 492 strikeouts in his first season with the Bears, marking the fifth-highest single-season total in program history. He helped junior right-hander Will Rigney to Big 12 Pitcher of the Week honors on March 20 after he threw five perfect innings and struck out 11 of the 15 batters he faced against Rice and Kansas State. The Bears tallied double-digit punchouts 20 times in 2023, and set a program record for Big 12 contests with 18 K's at Oklahoma State on March 24.

Prior to coming to BU, Leverton served as the pitching coach at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. In 2022, he polished Little Rock ace Hayden Arnold to second-team All-Sun Belt Conference honors and saw his staff rack up 385 strikeouts and allow just 269 walks across 442 total innings. Arnold led the Trojans with a 3.14 ERA and punched out 86 in 94.2 innings of work.

Leverton joined the Trojans’ staff after spending six seasons with Thompson at MCC, where he was part of three conference championships, a pair of NJCAA World Series appearances and the 2021 NJCAA National Championship. After being promoted to pitching coach from volunteer assistant in 2019, Leverton mentored eight all-conference pitchers, three Pitchers of the Year and a pair of second-round Major League Baseball draft picks in Josh Breaux and Connor Phillips. In his final season with MCC, Leverton worked side-by-side with Logan Henderson, the 2021 NJCAA Division I Pitcher of the Year.

Prior to his time coaching, Leverton spent seven seasons in the minor leagues with the Chicago Cubs and Miami Marlins organizations. In 2013, he reached Triple-A with the Marlins’ affiliate New Orleans Zephyrs as part of his four-season stint with the franchise from 2011-2014. Previously, he spent three years in the Cubs system and was a 2010 MiLB All-Star with Chicago’s Double-A affiliate Tennessee Smokies.

Leverton was an eighth-round draft pick in 2008 out of Texas Tech, where he played three seasons as a pitcher, outfielder and first baseman. He led the Red Raiders’ pitching staff in ’08 with a 3.86 ERA in 31 relief appearances and earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention honors as a first baseman in ’07.

A native of Rockwall, Texas, Leverton received his bachelor’s degree in general studies from Texas Tech through McLennan’s University Center in 2016. He and his wife, Casey, welcomed their son, Parker, in December 2022.