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).
