Kevin Castillo - Softball Coach - Long Beach State University Athletics

Kevin Castillo

Title:
Assistant Coach
Email:
Kevin.Castillo@csulb.edu
Phone:
985-8565

Kevin Castillo enters his eighth season at the Beach, and returns for his fifth as an assistant coach following a promotion in 2018. Castillo serves as the program’s pitching coach and assists Kim Sowder and Panita Thanatharn with recruiting and the day-to-day operations of the program.

On the way to winning the Big West championship in 2023, Long Beach State posted a 1.41 ERA in league play, finishing with a 2.54/1 K/BB ratio as a staff while limiting opponents to .191 hitting.

In 2021 under his leadership, Long Beach State swept the Big West pitching awards, with Kellie White earning Big West Pitcher of the Year while newcomer Shannon Haddad was named the Big West Freshman Pitcher of the Year. As a team, Long Beach State led the Big West with a 1.78 ERA in conference play, and led the league with 163 strikeouts as well as holding league opposition to .221 hitting.

In his first season as pitching coach in 2019, Castillo helped guide two newcomers in Kellie White and Ashley Coleman who both ranked among the Big West leaders in ERA, opposing batting average, wins and strikeouts.

His promotion came following two years as the team’s volunteer assistant coach, where he was responsible with hitting instruction and working with the infielders in addition to assisting with the pitching staff.

A graduate of Long Beach Poly, Castillo attended both Long Beach City College and Bacone College, playing baseball at both schools as well as golf at Bacone, but throughout was gaining experience in fastpitch softball.

Playing for the USA Junior Men’s National team in 2005, Castillo broke into the Senior National Team in 2008, where he has played ever since. A member of team USA for the 2013 and 2016 ISF World Team championships, Castillo was previously named an ASA All-American and continues to play at the international level, twice earning ISC All-World honors. Since 2017, Castillo has been the team captain for Team USA, and led the team to a Silver Medal at the 2019 Pan-American Games in Lima, Peru.

In addition to working as an assistant coach at both the club and high school levels, Castillo has worked at the On Deck Batting Cages in Signal Hill as a hitting instructor. The facility serves as Long Beach State softball’s rainy day home batting cages.