HEAD COACH Fritz Hamburg Ithaca ‘89 Fifth Season
Saint Joseph’s welcomed head baseball coach Fritz Hamburg to Hawk Hill in August of 2008. Hamburg donned the Crimson and Gray after spending eight years at the United States Military Academy, first as an assistant coach and later as the associate head coach. Over the course of his extensive coaching career, Hamburg has established a reputation as one of the nation’s finest tutors of young pitchers and catchers and has brought his track record of success to his first head coaching job, as evidenced by former SJU hurlers Ryan Kemp and A.J. Holland being selected in the 2011 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. Last season was a banner year for baseball on Hawk Hill as Hamburg's charges became the first Saint Joseph's squad to qualify for the Atlantic 10 Championship, winning a pair of games in the tournament. The appearance came on the heels of a 13-10 conference mark, SJU's first winning record in conference play since 1984. The 2012 Hawks also achieved another first for the program on April 17 when they defeated Penn, 63, at Citizens Bank Park to claim SJU's first-ever Liberty Bell Classic title. In addition, Saint Joseph's opened the new John W. Smithson Field on the Maguire Campus with a 5-1 win over Iona on March 9. The game marked the first varsity baseball contest on the Saint Joseph's campus since 1958. Pitcher Kyle Mullen became the first Hawk starting pitcher in program history to be named to the Atlantic 10 All-Conference First Team and was named the Philadelphia Big 5 Baseball Pitcher of the Year. First baseman Kevin Taylor was an All-Conference First Team selection as well, while the squad was named the Big 5 Team of the Year and Hamburg earned Big 5 Coach of the Year honors for the second time. In 2011, the Hawks posted their second consecutive double-digit win total in conference play, which had not been done since SJU won 10 league games in each season from 2001-03. The team also won at least 20 games for the first time in a decade, and its 21 wins were the most against Division I competition since the 1999 season. After the season, Kemp and Holland were selected in the 14th and 16th rounds of the MLB Draft by Cincinnati and Atlanta, respectively. In 2010, Hamburg led the Hawks to the cusp of their first Atlantic 10 Tournament berth, with the squad ultimately falling a game short of the final postseason spot. SJU set a school record with 13 conference wins, and earned series victories in four of their first five A-10 series. After the season, the ace of the Hawk rotation, lefthander Randy Mower, signed a free agent contract with the Washington Nationals organization. In his first season at Saint Joseph’s, Hamburg’s charges improved from last place in the conference to a tie for 11th, the squad’s best finish in four years. The 2009 Hawks saw a 12-point jump in the team’s batting average as well as marked increases in both slugging percentage and on-base percentage. The team also shattered the previous school record when they were hit by 104 pitches. While at Army, Hamburg was named the 2007 Baseball America/American Baseball Coaches Association Assistant Coach of the Year. During his tenure there, he worked with the Black Knight pitching staff, leading them to new heights in the national statistical rankings. From 2004-06, the Army pitchers improved from 12th to eighth to seventh in the country in earned run average. During that three-year stretch, Army was the only program in Division I to rank in the top 12 in ERA every season. Over the four-year span between 2004 and 2007, the Black Knight pitching staff recorded 22 shutouts and its members received 13 All-Patriot League awards. Hamburg guided Nick Hill to Patriot League Pitcher of the Year honors in 2004, 2005, and 2007. Hill became the first player in league history to earn the honor outright three times and was also the first Black Knight to receive All-America honors in back-to-back seasons. Hill and fellow pitcher Milan Dinga were drafted in the seventh and 10th rounds, respectively, of the 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft; they were the first Army players ever selected in the first 10 rounds of the draft. An All-American backstop himself, Hamburg also assisted with the Army catchers during his tenure there. One of his players, Schuyler Williamson, was named 2004 Patriot League Player of the Year and was selected in the 2005 MLB Draft. In addition to Williamson, Hill and Dinga, eight other Black Knights were drafted during Hamburg’s time at West Point, while a grand total of six players received All-American accolades. Prior to his stint at the Military Academy, Hamburg served as an assistant coach at Cornell, New Mexico State, Cal-Poly Pomona, Georgia and his alma mater, Ithaca College. He has also served as a summer league head coach in both the Northeast Collegiate Baseball League and the Valley Baseball League. A native of Doylestown, Pa., Hamburg began his collegiate playing career at Virginia Tech before transferring to Ithaca. It was there that he earned All-America honors and helped lead the Bombers to a Division III national championship in 1988. The 1989 graduate then spent a year in the Philadelphia Phillies organization before embarking on his coaching career.
ALL-TIME SJU COACHING RECORDS*
Coach (seasons) Vince Mallon (2) Pep Young (8) Jack Ramsay (3) Al Brancato (6) Harry Booth (10)** Barry Kirsch (5) George Bennett (5) Mike Creciun (2) Chris Loschiavo (10) Jim Ertel (8) Shawn Pender (3) Lee Saverio (1) Fritz Hamburg (4) TOTAL
Years 1946-47 1948-55 1956-58 1959-64 1965-74 1975-79 1980-84 1985-86 1987-96 1997-2004 2005-07 2008 2009-present 66 seasons
Won 6 48 19 38 140 74 82 18 184 142 41 18 80 890
Lost 17 69 33 68 80 68 67 50 264 265 116 34 122 1,253
Tied 0 1 0 3 5 1 3 1 5 5 0 0 1 25
Pct. .261 .411 .365 .362 .633 .521 .549 .268 .412 .351 .261 .346 .397 .416
* – Since World War II. Saint Joseph’s did not field a baseball team from 1931-45. Records from 1910-30 are incomplete. The information that is available can be found on page 51 of this guide. ** – Harry Booth and Marty Pollock were co-head coaches in 1970 and 1971. See page 51 for more information.
The Hawks have increased their win total in each of Fritz Hamburg’s first four seasons, culminating in the program’s first-ever berth in the Atlantic 10 Baseball Championship in 2012.
2013 SAINT JOSEPH’S BASEBALL MEDIA GUIDE 4