Ty Blankmeyer - Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator - Baseball Coaches

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Ty Blankmeyer

Title:
Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
Email:
taylor.blankmeyer@duke.edu

Duke baseball head coach Chris Pollard announced in July 2022 the hiring of Ty Blankmeyer as assistant coach and recruiting coordinator. Blankmeyer came to Durham after one year on the staff at Wake Forest.

In 2024, under Blankmeyer’s guidance, the Blue Devils set a new program high for fielding percentage of .980, recording just 42 errors in 2,113 total attempts. Duke won its second ACC Tournament Championship in Charlotte, N.C., not recording an error in all four games. On the offensive side, Duke once again broke the home run record, blasting 116 on the season and shattered the program record for runs scored with 501.

In his first season with the Blue Devils, Blankmeyer worked primarily with the infielders and helped secure the second highest fielding percentage in a single season in program history and the highest in the Pollard era. Offensively, the Blue Devils set new program records in home runs (109), RBI (448) and runs scored (481), while posting the second most doubles (124), walks (296) and third most hits (617). All of those marks were the highest in the Chris Pollard area as well.

The product of a baseball family, Blankmeyer was a four-year standout at St. John's, was drafted, played professionally, and began his post-playing career in player development with the Cincinnati Reds and later as an area scout with the Milwaukee Brewers from 2017-21.

Blankmeyer was a middle infielder at St. John's from 2012-16, where he helped lead the program to the Big East regular-season and tournament titles in 2015 under his father, Ed – the winningest coach in St. John's history with 829 victories. Ed now manages the Brooklyn Cyclones in the New York-Penn League. Ty's grandfather, Mike Sheppard Sr., was a legendary baseball coach at Seton Hall, winning 998 games, making 10 NCAA Tournament appearances and two College World Series runs.

In his one year on the staff at Wake Forest as the volunteer assistant coach, Blankmeyer was instrumental in the team's base running and fielding improvements. Wake finished sixth in the ACC with a .973 fielding percentage, eight spots higher than the Demon Deacons' finish the year prior.

The 2022 season saw Wake Forest win 41 games -- the fifth most in program history – and increase its win total by 21 games (41 wins to 20 wins), the largest year-to-year turnaround in program history. The season culminated with the program's 14th appearance in the NCAA Tournament.

Blankmeyer was selected by the Cincinnati Reds in the 2016 MLB Draft and hit .280 in the Pioneer League before stepping into a player development role with the franchise at the Arizona Complex League (AZL), working alongside Jose Nieves and Barry Larkin. From there, he moved to the Milwaukee Brewers where he managed all scouting responsibilities in the Northeast region for five seasons. In 2021, Blankmeyer signed the Brewers' No. 1 pick, Sal Frelick, who starred at Boston College.

The native of Morristown, N.J., received a degree in Communications from St. John's in 2016.