Suffolk

Anthony Del Prete will enter his ninth season as head baseball coach at Suffolk University in 2023. 

Alongside his baseball responsibilities, Del Prete serves as the department’s Associate Director of Athletics. He oversees the department’s compliance and recruiting coordination and also handles scheduling for the varsity intercollegiate men’s sports teams.

In his seven years as skipper, Del Prete guided Suffolk to four consecutive Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championships and NCAA Division III regional tournament appearances from 2015-18. Over the course of his tenure, he has put together a 143-111-1 overall record and has gone 63-17 against conference counterparts (4-4 CCC / 59-13 GNAC). 

In his guidance, Suffolk has seen one All-American honorable mention, 11 all-region selections, (one GNAC Player of the Year (Brady Chant, 2018), a pair of GNAC Pitchers of the Year (Chuck Gibson, 2017 & Worth Walrod, 2016), one GNAC Rookie of the Year (Jake Frasca, 2016) and 52 all-league selections (6 CCC & 46 GNAC). His teams have excelled not just athletically, but academically as well with five straight Academic Team Honors from the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) starting in 2017.  

After having the 2020 season haulted, the 2021 campaign was again anything, but ordinary, as well. With a handful of restrictions and guidelines to follow, Del Prete guided his seventh-team through its first season in the CCC, one which was divded into pod play. Suffolk played its way into the Pod B Finals. In the best of three series against Endicott, the Rams fell short to end their season 11-12 overall. Along the way six players etched their name in the record book as the first to take home All-CCC accolades in Christian Seariac (first-team), Tim Brigham (first-team), EJ Birch (second-team), Rich Gilbride (third-team) and Blase Cormier (third-team). In addition to the all-conference nods, Seariac's standout season was highlighted with an all-region selection by the NEIBA in conjunction with ABCA and Rawlings. 

Del Prete’s sixth season, 2020, was a year like no other. What would have been a milestone marker, the 20th and final year in the GNAC, will be remembered for something entirely different; the year that all NCAA sports were canceled due to a world-wide pandemic, COVID-19. Prior to the conclusion of the season, the Rams got 11 games in, including their Spring Break trip, and ended the campaign 5-6 overall.  

In 2019, Del Prete led Suffolk to something new, back-to-back regular-season GNAC Championships, guiding his Rams to a 14-2 league ledger. The regular-season momentum was not carried over to the postseason, however, and for the first-time in the Del Prete era, Suffolk would not take home the conference crown as it slipped in the semifinals to conclude the 2019 season, 23-18-1. 

With a roster divided by newcomers and veterans, Del Prete had his work cut out for himself in 2018. His fourth year did not disappoint as the combination of his managing and senior leadership lifted Rams to GNAC glory once again, marking the fourth straight conference title to keep Del Prete’s title trip status in the league’s postseason intact.

Along the way to the program’s eighth overall conference banner, the 2018 GNAC Coach of the Year guided the Rams to the regular-season conference title for the first time in his tenure with a 13-1 league ledger.  

GNAC Player of the Year Brady Chant headlined Suffolk’s top performers in 2018 as 11 Rams took home all-league honors. Chant, a D3Baseball.com Preseason All-American, became the fifth player in Rams’ history to collect 200 hits in his career and garnered all-region first-team accolades from both D3Baseball.com and the NEIBA in conjunction with the ABCA/Rawlings, respectively.  

Del Prete’s fourth year on Suffolk’s bench also featured his 100th career victory – a 7-4 comeback win in the regular-season finale at Endicott April 29. He accomplished the feat in just four seasons to become the fastest coach in Suffolk baseball history to eclipse the 100-win feat.

Another milestone was also reached in 2018, the program’s 1000th win, an 11-2 nightcap victory at Norwich April 21. Del Prete, who had a hand as either a player and/or apart of the coaching staff in 42.5 percent (425; 94 as head coach, 55 as an associate head coach,169 as an assistant coach and 107 as a player) of those wins, helped Suffolk become the 65th NCAA Division III program to win 1,000 contests.

Suffolk’s athletic success was not the only standout in 2018 as the Rams were acknowledged for the second straight season for their success in the classroom with the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, achieving a 3.68 grade point average collectively, the highest among Suffolk’s active 18 varsity sport teams. Once again Chant anchored the individual performances academic as the Business Open major earned Google Cloud Academic All-District by CoSIDA, becoming the second Ram under Del Prete’s guidance to do so.

In year three of the Del Prete era success was proven once again as the blue-and-gold achieved GNAC glory for the third straight season in as many years as head coach. The program’s seventh overall conference crown came in the form of a 1-0 victory over Johnson & Wales behind GNAC Pitcher of the Year senior hurler Chuck Gibson. He sat down eight batters, including the final four, three of which went down swinging, to secure the Rams’ threepeat title. Gibson earned GNAC Tournament MVP status joining teammates Matt Brenner, Brady Chant and Seth Coiley on the GNAC Tournament Team.  

The 70th season of Rams’ baseball ended with an exclamation point – the most successful trip to the NCAA Tournament.

In its seventh overall trip, third with Del Prete on the bench, Suffolk found itself in the win column for the first time at NCAAs thanks to the finesse throwing of Gibson, who put together a career-night – complete-game, five-hit, three-walk, career-best nine-strikeout – in a 4-0 shutout over then-No. 22/18 St. John Fisher.

The Rams did the unspeakable again the next night thanks to Ryan Pordes on the mound in a classic pitchers dual. After a scoreless 9.0 full frames, the Rams walked-off in the 11th inning against a drawn in five-man infield to advance in the NCAA New England Regionals.  

Suffolk’s historical run ended, however, with a loss in the winner’s bracket final to eventual regional winner UMass Boston and was eliminated by Babson on Championship Sunday to cap off the Rams' season at 28-17 overall.  

Suffolk finished the season as the nation’s statistical champion in triples (32) and triples per game (0.71) behind the student-athlete statistical leader Chant, who hit 12 triples in 2017 (0.27 per game). The centerfielder became the program’s ninth overall All-American with a D3Baseball.com Honorable Mention accolade to go along with first-time all-region nods by D3Baseball.com and NEIBA in conjunction with ABCA/Rawlings, respectively. Brenner joined Chant on both regional first teams, while Gibson was a NEIBA/ABCA/Rawlings first-team honoree and was recognized with a spot on D3Baseball.com All-Region’s second squad. Overall, 10 individuals combined for 12 all-conference honorees.

The 2017 Rams were also recognized for their success in the classroom as the team earned the ABCA Team Academic Excellence Award, achieving a 3.10 grade point average collectively. Individually, Brenner garnered CoSIDA Academic All-District recognition for his success both academically and athletically.  

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. Joseph’s College (Maine) 5-4 in 10 innings to earn the program’s 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 honorees 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 third-team.   

Del Prete replaced Cary McConnell prior to the start of the 2015 season after he relinquished the role as he was named the University’s Director of Athletics. He became just the sixth baseball coach in the program’s 71-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 program’s second 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 program’s four NCAA Tournament appearances with 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 a 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 of the independent CanAm League. In 2005, he signed with the Evansville Otters of the Frontier League. Del Prete spent 3 seasons playing professionally in Evansville, Indiana, helping the Otters win their franchise’s 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 Master’s Degree in Administration of Higher Education in 2008 at Suffolk where he served as the department’s graduate assistant.

In 2008, Del Prete served as the institution’s Sports Information Director. He oversaw all media relations and publicity of the athletics programs while maintaining the department’s website. He also served as an advisory member for the institution’s athletic review committee in 2014.