Bio

With nearly 10 years of collegiate coaching experience within the Mississippi junior college ranks, former high school and collegiate pitching standout Dylan Earnest is in his fourth year as an assistant baseball coach on Brett Kimbrel’s East Mississippi Community College coaching staff.

Continuing to serve primarily as EMCC’s pitching coach since his arrival on the Scooba campus in 2022, Earnest acquired additional scouting and recruiting responsibilities this past offseason for the Lions.

During his first three years at East Mississippi, Earnest has been associated with back-to-back postseason playoff teams during the 2023 and 2024 seasons. He has worked with several EMCC pitchers who have advanced to compete at the university level, including 2025 Major League Baseball Draft pick Joe Scarborough (Jacksonville State) of the New York Mets organization, along with University of Montevallo commits Matthew Birdsong and Sam Malone as well as Otis Brooks III (Alabama State) from this past year’s Lions pitching staff.

Prior to joining Kimbrel’s EMCC staff in 2022, Earnest spent five seasons at his junior college alma mater as an assistant coach on recently retired Rick Collier’s staff at Itawamba Community College. During his first two seasons on the ICC staff, Earnest was a part of consecutive NJCAA Region 23 Tournament teams that both achieved No. 2 national rankings. Featuring current left-handed pro pitchers Houston Harding and Jackson Lancaster, the 2019 Indians won 41 games en route to winning the MACJC Championship with a 24-4 conference mark and finishing as the nation’s second-ranked NJCAA Division II team in the final poll.

During his previous stint on the ICC campus as a left-handed pitcher, Earnest compiled a two-year record of 12-7 with 162 strikeouts in 151.1 career innings pitched for the Indians. He capped his ICC playing days by earning All-MACJC First Team and NJCAA All-Region 23 honors as a sophomore after going 7-4 on the mound with a 1.08 earned run average in 2013. He also allowed only 53 hits with 91 strikeouts and just 16 walks over 83.1 innings pitched that season.

A former Louisville Slugger All-American while pitching for Hamilton High School, Earnest signed with Southeastern Louisiana University before completing his collegiate playing career and then getting into coaching as a graduate assistant during his two years at what is now Blue Mountain Christian University.