Plymouth State University

Clay Jenkins enters his seventh season as head coach of the baseball program in 2021-22 after spending five years as the team's pitching coach.

PSU has qualified for the Little East tournament in two of his six years (2016, 2018), while narrowly missing out on the postseason in 2017, 2019 and 2021. The 2020 season was abruptly cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the Panthers came back in 2021 and remained in postseason contention up through the last week of the regular season. Jenkins has an 84-104 career record, while his coaching has lifted the program a number of team and individual records over that time.

Jenkins coached PSU’s first-ever First Team All-American in 2019, as senior Josh Goulet earned the recognition from both the ABCA and D3baseball.com, while also becoming the first Panther to earn LEC Player of the Year honors. PSU scored a program-record 290 runs that spring, while mashing a school-record 38 home runs. The Panthers also set the program mark for RBI in a season (257) and matched the record for steals in a game (12). Additionally, fourteen individual records were broken during the year.

Jenkins immediately established an aggressive offensive style of play in his first year (2016) while leading the team to a 20-22 mark, as PSU established program records for steals in a game and season. The Panthers finished tied for fourth in the final conference standings, earning a trip to the LEC Tournament.

Plymouth State went an even .500 (19-19) in his second year, though the Panthers finished just one win shy of qualifying for the postseason. PSU made a return trip to the tournament in 2018, the program’s tenth overall, while finishing the season with a 16-19 record.

As the pitching coach from 2011-2015, Jenkins helped lead the pitching staff from a 6.56 team earned run average to a 3.63 team ERA. The team made a pair of LEC Tournament appearances, including a run to the championship game for the first time in school history, in 2012.

A native of Easton, N.H., Jenkins was a standout pitcher at Profile High School and then Franklin Pierce University. During his collegiate playing career (2004-07), he was a versatile pitcher used in a variety of situations. As a captain and Academic All-District First Teamer his senior year, Jenkins helped the Ravens to the Division II College World Series for the second consecutive year by accumulating a 6-1 record and one save with a 1.88 ERA in 22 appearances. Among the all-time leaders in both single season and career appearances, Jenkins brings not only experience, but a strategic mind-set to the Panther baseball program. 

Jenkins played professionally for a short stint in the Frontier League with the Kalamazoo Kings in Kalamazoo, Mich. In addition to his Bachelor’s degree in Finance/Management from Franklin Pierce, Jenkins earned a Master’s degree in Global Business and Project Management from Southern New Hampshire University in 2012. Jenkins currently serves as Vice President of Operations and Project Development for Portland Construction Services, Inc. out of Saco, Maine. He resides in Newmarket, N.H. with his wife Elizabeth and children Connor and Aubrey.