Kyle Winkler

Biography

Kyle Winkler, an accomplished hurler for the TCU Horned Frogs during his playing days, will enter his third season at Air Force after assuming the role of pitching coach for the Falcons in 2024. Winkler’s second season in the dugout concluded with a 20-34 overall mark, including a 12-18 record in Mountain West action. Under his leadership, the Falcon pitching staff collected 20 wins, paced by righty Patrick Davidson’s team-high five wins, while combining to bring in 374 strikeouts across the campaign. In conference play, the staff logged a team ERA of 7.78 with 203 punchouts thrown across 261.1 innings. During his first season as the Air Force pitching coach, Winkler helped propel the Falcons to their first Mountain West Regular Season Championship title in program history. The pitching staff accumulated 27 wins, 11 saves, and 368 strikeouts. Seungmin Shim led the Falcons on the mound and was tabbed the 2024 Mountain West Pitcher of the Year, just the third Air Force pitcher to garner the award. The lefty threw 65.1 Mountain West innings and totaled six wins, the most of any pitcher in the league. Across the season, Shim tallied 14 starts on the mound, managed at least 5.0 innings in 12 of those starts, and struck out 87 batters for an overall ERA of 3.22. The former right-hander helped oversee a Horned Frogs pitching staff that was instrumental in guiding TCU to a trip to the College World Series in 2023, finishing as a national semifinalist. Winkler, assigned the role of bu