Courtesy of Kelly-Ann DiGiulio, Dominican SID

Orangeburg, NY (4/20/09) - Dominican College Head Baseball Coach, Rick Giannetti, notched his 600th career coaching win this past Friday in a 2-1 extra inning victory over the visiting Philadelphia University Rams.

Giannetti has been at the helm of the Charger baseball program for the past 20 years.  He has guided Dominican to 12 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) Championships, nine regional tournament appearances, one Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Championship and two NAIA World Series Appearances. His teams have qualified for post season play every year except one.

Giannetti spent his collegiate career at Ramapo College of New Jersey where he was a member of the baseball team for four years. As a pitcher, he never lost a game in college and for three of those years had a single digit statistic for walks allowed. The Roadrunners also went to three regional tournaments in his tenure there. He graduated in 1982 with a double major B.S. in psychology and business.

His collegiate coaching career started at his alma mater joining the team as an assistant coach in 1983 and helped guide the Roadrunners to a National Championship in 1984. Giannetti then took over the reigns in 1988 and spent two years as the head coach. In that time, he made two conference tournament appearances, won a conference championship in 1988 and made a regional tournament appearance.

Coach Giannetti has been awarded the CACC Coach of the Year award eight times in his tenure and the Regional Coach of the Year Award four times. He has also been a finalist for the National Coach of the Year Award on four occasions. He has coached 48 All-American players and 119 All-Conference Players and has had 19 players sign professional contracts, with two players currently in the Chicago Cubs minor league system and one with the Boston Red Sox.

Currently the Chargers have a 25-9 record and are ranked #1 in the NCAA East Region and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) rankings.

Giannetti now has a career coaching record of 602-384 and his record at Dominican now stands at 557-335.