Bio

Bob Keller enters his third season in charge of Gulf Coast in 2022-23 coming off a power-packed year for his lineup. The Bulldogs finished second in the MACCC with 54 home runs and saw two Bulldogs among the nation leaders in homers.

Third baseman Charlie Keller and outfielder Sean Smith finished 1-2 in the conference, with Keller’s 16 leading the way despite missing 16 games because of injury. He finished 13^th in the NJCAA in that category, while Smith hit 15.

Smith was one of five Bulldogs who signed to continue their playing careers at four-year schools. He’ll be at Georgia Southern with pitcher Adam May signing at William Carey, first baseman/designated hitter DJ Walker at LSU Shreveport and pitchers Sam Mansell and Nate Anderson at Mobile.

Keller displayed his talents as a pitcher whisperer in 2021-22, turning the Bulldogs’ arms into one of the top staffs in the MACCC. They led the conference in strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.46) while finishing second in total strikeouts and fourth in ERA.

He arrived at Perk with an impressive array of NCAA Division I conference championships and regional titles and appearances on his resume.

Keller was the Mississippi/Louisiana scout for the Seattle Mariners from 2018-20, and he had seven players signed in those two years. He was the Director of Alabama Operations for Knights Knation Baseball, a premier travel ball program, for 2021. In 2022, he was one of four roving coordinators with Team USA for the Appalachian League. Major League Baseball converted the storied league into a summer college league, and Keller has been working with pitchers on the 10 teams which will serve as a national team development league.

Keller spent seven seasons leading the South Alabama pitching staff. The Jaguars won three Sun Belt Conference regular-season championships and one tournament title. They played in three regionals, including back-to-back trips in 2016-17. Kevin Hill became the first to win SBC Pitcher of the Year twice. He was a first-team All-American that year after being second-team the year before, and the Houston Astros drafted him in 2016.

Three USA pitchers went on to play in the majors: Ben Taylor, Locke St. John, and current Kansas City reliever Matt Peacock.

He was at Michigan from 2005-10, where he had 18 pitchers named All-Big Ten. Ten of his hurlers went in the first 10 rounds of the draft, including four in 2005 alone. His units finished first or second in team ERA in the conference in three of his last four seasons there.

The Wolverines won three straight Big 10 regular-season championships starting in 2006. They went to three straight regionals and won the Nashville Regional in 2007. In the Corvallis Super Regional, Michigan lost to eventual national champions Oregon State. The next year, Michigan earned the right to host the Ann Arbor Regional and finished 46-14 .

In his one season at Dallas Baptist, the Patriots won the Fort Worth Regional and went on to play against California in the Santa Clara Super Regional. They saw the team ERA lowered from 6.19 in 2010 to 4.73 and finished 42-20. Six pitchers on that staff were drafted. 

Keller coached three seasons under legendary coach Brian Shoop at Birmingham-Southern. Six of his pitchers were drafted, and the 2004 Panthers went 47-18 on the way to the Big South regular-season championship. Birmingham-Southern participated in its first-ever NCAA Tournament when it appeared in the 2004 Athens Regional. Keller coached Connor Robertson at BSU, and he went on to pitch in the majors.

He started his college coaching career at Georgia State. His first year was in 1994 and was a hitting instructor and recruiting coordinator during his seven years there.

Keller was an outstanding two-way player at Biola University in La Mirada, Calif. He was a two-time NCCAA All-American, and he held school records for RBI and doubles and ranked second in hits and home runs when he graduated. His first start as a freshman was a complete-game win over Texas Tech.

He has a bachelor’s degree in physical education from Biola, and he got a second bachelor’s in health and kinesiology from Georgia State. Keller and his wife Jeannie have two sons, Charlie, 19, and Brady, 16.