| THE MCNUTT FILE |
College: Texas A&M
Hometown:
Experience: 24 years (Head Coach) |
| HONORS |
|
5x Conference Coach of the Year (Division I)
Texas A&M Hall of Fame
Regional & Lousiana Coach of the Year (Northwestern State)
Assistant Coach of the Year Award (University of Southwestern Louisiana) |
| YEAR-BY-YEAR REVIEW |
| 2023 25-28 |
| 2024 25-29 (LSC Tournament Appearance) |
| 2025 21-29 |
Gay McNutt a veteran head coach with 36 years of collegiate coaching experience was named the Pioneers head softball coach in June 2022.
McNutt becomes the seventh head coach of the Pioneers softball program since the program was reinstated in 1997.
Mcnutt, was announced as an inductee into the Class of 2025 Northwestern State Hall of Fame. At NSU she coached two All-Region honorees, 24 All-SLC honorees, and 17 SLC All-Tournament honorees.
In the 2025 season, TWU defeated five nationally ranked teams, including two top-10 opponents and a top-5 opponent. McNutt coached two players who were named to the Academic All-District team, Marissa Espinoza and Vivica Hernandez.
In her second year as head coach for TWU, McNutt led the Pioneers to another 25 win season in back to back seasons and a trip back to the LSC Tournament for the first time since 2017. The 23 wins in the LSC under McNutt marked the most wins in conference play in program history for the Pioneers. McNutt coached five Academic All-District honorees in Delaney Boley, Allison Gonzalez, Vivica Hernandez, Makana Morton and Ciana Rodriguez. She also coached Alyssa LeBlanc who closed her career at TWU with the most strikeouts in a career with 523, previously held by Carly Case.
McNutt has spent 22 years as a Division I head coach, earning five conference coach of the year awards along the way. McNutt was named Southland Conference Coach of the Year four times during her tenure at Stephen F. Austin (1998, 1999, 2000 and 2004) and was named Conference USA Coach of the Year in 2010 during her tenure at Southern Mississippi.
With 628 career wins as a head coach, McNutt joins the Pioneers after spending the last four seasons at outgoing Lone Star Conference member Texas A&M-Commerce, spending the 2022 campaign as the interim head coach. In her lone season at the helm of the Lions program, McNutt led TAMUC to a 43-15 overall record, a 22-8 mark in Lone Star Conference play, and the first Lone Star Conference tournament championship in program history after the Lions swept through the LSC championship.
Prior to taking the interim head coach position, McNutt had served the previous two seasons as Associate Head Coach at TAMUC. During her tenure in Commerce, the Lions pitching staff set single-season records for lowest team ERA, lowest opponent batting average, fewest walks allowed, most strikeouts per seven innings and most shutouts.
McNutt spent nine seasons as the head coach at Stephen F. Austin, leading the Lumberjacks to five Southland Conference postseason tournaments and the 2008 tournament title – the first in program history. Prior to SFA, McNutt spent seven seasons at Southern Miss, where she captured a pair of Conference USA titles. She remains the program's all-time leader in wins.
She began her head coaching career at Northwestern State, spending six seasons and capturing three consecutive Southland Conference championships in her final three seasons. She has led her teams to eight overall conference titles and five NCAA regional championships.
McNutt has also served as an assistant coach on the staff at North Texas, Alvin Community College, the University of Houston, and the University of Louisiana-Lafayette (then Southwestern Louisiana), where she received her bachelor of arts in behavioral science.
Prior to her coaching career, McNutt was an all-American at Texas A&M, earning induction into the Texas A&M Hall of Fame in 2011. She was a four-year starter behind the plate for the Aggies, earning all-America honors as a senior, and all-region honors all four years. A two-year captain, she helped lead the Aggies to three consecutive national championship games, winning the AIAW Women's College World Series in 1982 and the NCAA Women's College World Series in 1983, finishing as national runner-up in 1984.
