Suffolk University Men's Baseball

Del Prete enters his third season as Head Baseball Coach at Suffolk University. In his two years as skipper, Del Prete has guided Suffolk to back to back Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championships and NCAA Division III regional tournament appearances. In 2016, Del Prete guided Suffolk to a 33-13 overall record, the second highest single season win total in program history. Suffolk defeated St. Josephs College (Maine) 5-4 in 10 innings to earn the programs first back-to-back conference championship as it advanced to the NCAA regionals for the sixth time in history. Suffolk led the GNAC in every statistical category offensively, while posting a total of 345 runs scored, the highest among teams in New England. The pitching staff posted a league-best ERA of 3.38, while the team set new program marks in fielding percentage (.963) and stolen bases (95) on the year. A total of four players were named All-Region honors by the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA): Brady Chant, Jake Frasca, Drew Carter and Kevin Sinatra, while Suffolk also took home 17 postseason accolades by the GNAC including Pitcher of the Year (Worth Walrod) and Rookie of the Year (Frasca). Del Prete was tabbed GNAC Coach of the Year. He was also honored by the East Boston Athletic Board with the Walter Spriggs Memorial Coach of the Year Award. In his first season in 2015, Del Prete guided Suffolk to its fifth GNAC Championship and fifth trip to the NCAA Division III Regional Tournament. Along the way three Rams were recognized by conference for their performances throughout the season. Josh Desai was named GNAC Tournament MVP following his complete game effort in a 3-2 victory over St. Joseph's College in the semifinals and picked up second-team accolades. Brady Chant received a Gold Glove by the conference as the centerfielder who did not record an error on the year and was chosen to the All-GNAC tourney team, while Jon Lapolla, who led the Rams in batting average (.291), slugging percentage (.455) and on-base percentage (.429), was awarded a spot on the conference's thrid-team.   Del Prete replaced Cary McConnell prior to the start of the 2015 season after he relinquished the role as he was named the Universitys Director of Athletics. He became just the sixth baseball coach in the programs 70 year history. Prior to taking over as head coach he served as an assistant coach at Suffolk for 10 seasons. In 2014 he was promoted to Associate Head Coach as Suffolk won their programs second Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III New England Championship. Del Prete also served as an assistant in 2005 and 2009, seasons in which Suffolk advanced to two of the programs four NCAA Tournament appearances with Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) Championships. He takes over the program of his alma mater in which he graduated in 2004. In four seasons on the mound at Suffolk he recorded a 21-11 overall record helping guide the Rams to a 2002 NCAA Tournament appearance in which he was named GNAC Tournament MVP, the conference Pitcher of the Year and an New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association(NEIBA) All-Region selection. He pitched for the Orleans Cardinals of the Cape Cod Baseball League in the summer of 2002 and served as closer for the Columbus All-Americans of the Great Lakes Summer League during their championship season in 2003. After his time at Suffolk, Del Prete had a brief stint with the North Shore Spirit ofthe independent CanAm League. In 2005, he signed with theEvansville Otters of the Frontier League. Del Prete spent 3 seasonsplaying professionally in Evansville, Indiana, helping the Otters win their franchises first and only league championship in 2006. He is ninth all-time in appearances (74) for the franchise. Del Prete has also traveled overseas to play as he spent the winter of 2005 in Perth, Western Australia, pitching for the Melville Braves of the Western Australia State League with stops in Antwerp,Belgium (2002) and Cuba (2011) in between. Following his playing career, Del Prete completed his Masters Degree in Administration of Higher Education in 2008 at Suffolk where he served as the departments graduate assistant. Following in 2008, Del Prete served as the institutions Sports Information Director. He oversaw all media relations and publicity of the athletics programs while maintaining the departments website. He also served as an advisory member for the institutions athletic review committee in 2014. Alongside his baseball responsibilities, Del Prete will also serve as the departments Associate Director of Athletics. He will oversee the departments compliance and recruiting coordinator and also handle scheduling for the varsity intercollegiate mens sports teams. Del Prete is a native of East Boston in which he still currently resides.