The Hartford Hawks baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate baseball program of the

University of Hartford The University of Hartford (UHart) is a private university in West Hartford, Connecticut. Its main campus extends into neighboring Hartford and Bloomfield. The university attracts students from 48 states and 43 countries. The university and it ...

, located in

West Hartford, Connecticut West Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, west of downtown Hartford. The population was 64,083 at the 2020 census. The town's popular downtown area is colloquially known as "West Hartford Center," or simply "The C ...

. The program had been a member of the

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of College athletics, intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major ...

America East Conference The America East Conference is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I founded in 1979, whose members are located in the Northeastern United States. The conference has nine core members including eight public research u ...

from 1985 to 2022. It has played home games at

Fiondella Field Fiondella Field is a baseball venue located on the campus of the University of Hartford in West Hartford, Connecticut, United States. It is home to the Hartford Hawks baseball team, a member of the NCAA Division I America East Conference. The s ...

since the venue opened at the start of the 2006 season.

History

The Hartford Art School, Hartt College of Music, and Hillyer College merged to create the

in February 1957. It began operation for the 1957–1958 school year. Although some Hartford athletic programs, such as men's basketball, trace their history to the teams of Hillyer College, records for the baseball program begin with the 1958 season.

Division II

1958 was the program's first season of competition. It competed as a member of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

College Division, made up of small-school athletic programs. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, the program competed as an Independent and played a schedule of between ten and twenty games each season. The program's first head coach, Frank Klein, served in the position for three seasons (1958–1960). The program had a losing record in each season, and Klein's overall record was 14–29. He later became the first commissioner of the Connecticut Collegiate Summer Baseball League. In 1961, Roger Wickman became the program's second head coach. In his first season, the program had its first winning record, going 7–5 in 1961. In 20 seasons as head coach, Wickman had six total winning seasons and finished with a career record of 146-178-5. Following the 1980 season, he stepped down from the head coaching position to become an administrator in Hartford's athletic department. During Wickman's tenure (following the 1973 season), the NCAA had reorganized its divisions. The large-school University Division became Division I, while the small-school College Division split to become Divisions II and III. Hartford, which had competed as a College Division Independent, became a Division II Independent. It continued to compete as an Independent through Wickman's final season as head coach in 1980. In the 1980–1981 academic year, Hartford became a charter member of the Northeast-7 Conference, along with

American International College American International College (AIC) is a private college in Springfield, Massachusetts. History American International College was originally established on July 18, 1885, as the French Protestant College by Rev. Calvin E. Amaron, who sough ...

, Assumption College,

Bentley College Bentley University is a private university focused on business, accountancy, and finance and located in Waltham, Massachusetts. Founded in 1917 as a school of accounting and finance in Boston's Back Bay neighborhood, Bentley moved to Waltham in ...

Bryant College Bryant University is a private university in Smithfield, Rhode Island. It has two colleges, the College of Arts and Sciences and the College of Business, and is accredited by the New England Commission of Higher Education. History Butler Exc ...

Springfield College Springfield College is a private college in Springfield, Massachusetts. It confers undergraduate and graduate degrees. It is known as the birthplace of basketball because the sport was invented there in 1891 by Canadian-American instructor J ...

, and

Stonehill College Stonehill College is a Private college, private Catholic church, Roman Catholic Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Easton, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1948 by the Congregation of Holy Cross and is located on ...

. The league became known as the Northeast-8 Conference when

Saint Anselm College Saint Anselm College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889, it is the third-oldest Catholic college in New England. Named for Saint Anselm of Canterbury (Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to ...

joined for the 1981–1982 academic year. In four seasons (1981–1984) as a member of the conference, Hartford had an overall record of 11–61, including winless seasons in 1983 and 1984.

Division I

For the start of the 1984–1985 academic year, Hartford's athletic programs transitioned to Division I, joining the ECAC. For the 1985 season, the program's first in Division I, it hired former

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

player Bill Denehy as its head coach. That season, the team went 2–24. In 1986, Denehy's second season, the team's record improved slightly to 8–34. Denehy was fired during his third season for making inflammatory comments following a game against

UConn The University of Connecticut (UConn) is a public land-grant research university in Storrs, Connecticut, a village in the town of Mansfield. The primary 4,400-acre (17.8 km2) campus is in Storrs, approximately a half hour's drive from Ha ...

in which two brawls broke out. Athletic director Don Cook, assisted by Wickman, coached the team for the remainder of the season. Jeff Bagwell batting

Prior to the start of the 1988 season, Hartford hired

Quinnipiac Quinnipiac is the English name for the Eansketambawg (meaning "original people"; ''cf.'' Ojibwe: ''Anishinaabeg'' and Blackfoot: ''Niitsítapi''), a Quiripi-speaking Native American nation of the Algonquian family who inhabited the ''Wampano ...

head coach Dan Gooley as a permanent replacement for Denehy. In Gooley's first season, the Hawks went 29–12 and finished second in the ECAC Tournament. In 1989, the team went 17–15–1 to give the program consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1971–1972. In 1992, the team went 27–21 and finished second in the

North Atlantic Conference The North Atlantic Conference (NAC) is an athletic conference, affiliated with the NCAA ’s Division III, consisting primarily of small liberal arts colleges in the Northern New England states of Maine and Vermont, as well as New York. The conf ...

(which sponsored its first season of baseball in 1990), again appearing in the ECAC Tournament. In the late 1980s, future Major League Baseball player

Jeff Bagwell Jeffrey Robert Bagwell (born May 27, 1968) is an American former professional baseball first baseman and coach who spent his entire 15-year Major League Baseball (MLB) playing career with the Houston Astros. Originally a Boston Red Sox fourth- ...

played three seasons for the program. Recruited by Denehy, Bagwell played under him in 1987, then under Gooley from 1988 to 1989. In 400

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

s with the program, Bagwell's

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

was .413, a program record. Bagwell was drafted by the

Boston Red Sox The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...

in the fourth round of the 1989 MLB Draft. He had a 15-year major league career with the

Houston Astros The Houston Astros are an American professional baseball team based in Houston, Texas. The Astros compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division, having moved to the division in 2013 after ...

in which he won a

National League MVP The Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award (MVP) is an annual Major League Baseball (MLB) award given to one outstanding player in the American League and one in the National League. Since 1931, it has been awarded by the Baseball Writers' ...

Award and appeared in four

All-Star Game An all-star game is an exhibition game that purports to showcase the best players (the "stars") of a sports league. The exhibition is between two teams organized solely for the event, usually representing the league's teams based on region or div ...

s. Following the 1992 season, Gooley left Hartford to become a baseball

corporate executive Corporate titles or business titles are given to corporate officers to show what duties and responsibilities they have in the organization. Such titles are used by publicly and privately held for-profit corporations, cooperatives, non-profit or ...

, and the program promoted assistant coach and former Major League player

Moe Morhardt Meredith Goodwin "Moe" Morhardt (born January 16, 1937) is an American former Major League Baseball first baseman. He played parts of the 1961 and 1962 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, appearing in 25 major league games.

to replace him.Morhardt honored for his passion, love of the game
at ctsports.homestead.com, URL accessed December 20, 2009

12/12/09 Morhardt held the position for two seasons (1993–1994), in which the program won at least 20 games per season and made consecutive NAC Tournament appearances. The team was eliminated in the opening round in the 1993 tournament. As the fifth seed in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which Sinking of the MS Estonia, sank in ...

, Hartford defeated fourth-seeded

Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and north ...

in a

best-of-three There are a number of formats used in various levels of competition in sports and games to determine an overall champion. Some of the most common are the ''single elimination'', the ''best-of-'' series, the ''total points series'' more commonly kn ...

opening round. It then won its first two games in the

double-elimination A double-elimination tournament is a type of elimination tournament competition in which a participant ceases to be eligible to win the tournament's championship upon having lost ''two'' games or matches. It stands in contrast to a single-elimina ...

final round (5–1 against first-seeded

Delaware Delaware ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Maryland to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and New Jersey and the Atlantic Ocean to its east. The state takes its name from the adjacent Del ...

and 6–5 against second-seeded

Northeastern The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

). The team then lost consecutive games to Northeastern in the championship round, however, and finished as the tournament runner-up. Morhardt resigned as head coach following the season. UNC Asheville head coach

Jim Bretz Jim Bretz (born April 11, 1964) is an American baseball scout and former college baseball coach. He is the Northeast Scouting Director for the Detroit Tigers and was previously the head coach of UNC Asheville (1991–1994) and Hartford (1995� ...

was hired to replace Morhardt, and Bretz held the position for three seasons (1995–1997). Under him, the program averaged only 16 wins per season and finished no higher than sixth in conference play. It qualified for the 1996 NAC Tournament, in which it finished third. Bretz resigned following the 1997 season "for personal reasons," according to the university. Bob Nenna, one of Bretz's assistant coaches and a Hartford player from 1989 to 1992, led the team to a 13–32 record as interim head coach in 1998. Future Major League player

Earl Snyder Earl Clifford Snyder (born May 6, 1976) is a former Major League Baseball player who played in the Major Leagues for the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox. In his short time in the majors, Snyder played first base, third base, and designated h ...

played under Bretz and Nenna from 1995 to 1998. Snyder set program career records for

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s (53) and

runs batted in A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

(173). Snyder later played for both the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

and

. From 1999 to 2011, the program had a pair of head coaches whose career winning percentages were below .300. Hartford hired Bowdoin and

Falmouth Commodores The Falmouth Commodores are a collegiate summer baseball team based in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The team is a member of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) and plays in the league's West Division. The Commodores play their home games at Arnie All ...

head coach Harvey Shapiro for the start of the 1999 season. In six seasons (1999–2004), Shapiro's head coaching record was 76-199-1. Under him, the team finished no higher than sixth in conference play and did not qualify for an America East Tournament, which in 1998 had adopted a four-team format. Shapiro resigned following the 2004 season.

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

assistant Jeff Calcaterra replaced Shapiro. Calcaterra held the position from the start of the 2005 season until partway through the 2011 season, when he was fired with an overall record of 79-236-1. At the start of the 2006 season, Calcaterra's second season, the program opened

, the program's first on-campus venue since the mid-1980s. To replace Calcaterra, the program hired

assistant Justin Blood for the 2012 season. Commenting on Blood's hiring, Aaron Fitt of ''Baseball America'' called him "one of the top up-and-coming coaches in the Northeast." In both 2012 and

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

, Blood's first two seasons as head coach, the Hawks finished in fifth place in the America East. In 2014, Hartford went 31–23, finishing second in the America East; pitcher

Sean Newcomb Sean, also spelled Seán or Séan in Irish English, is a male given name of Irish language, Irish origin. It comes from the Irish versions of the Biblical Hebrew name ''Yohanan'' (), Seán (Anglicisation of names, anglicized as ''Shaun/Shawn (giv ...

was named the America East Pitcher of the Year. The team qualified for the conference tournament, where the team went 1–2. It was Hartford's first winning season since 1992 and first postseason appearance since 1996. Following the season, three Hawks were selected in the

2014 Major League Baseball Draft The 2014 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft was held from June 5 through June 7, 2014, to assign amateur baseball players to MLB teams. The first two rounds were conducted on June 5, followed by rounds three through ten on June ...

, including Newcomb, who was selected in the first round by the

Los Angeles Angels The Los Angeles Angels are an American professional baseball team based in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. The Angels compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. Since 1966, the team ha ...

. Newcomb was Hartford's highest draft pick ever, and the three draftees were the program's first since

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. Following the season, Blood signed a five-year contract extension through the 2019 season.

Division III

On May 6, 2021, the University of Hartford Board of Regents voted to drop its athletic department to

Division III In sport, the Third Division, also called Division 3, Division Three, or Division III, is often the third-highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Association football *Belgian Thir ...

. The drop is set to take place no later than September 1, 2025.

Conference affiliations

* Independent (College Division/ Division II) (1958–1980) * Northeast-8 Conference (Division II) (1981–1984) ** Known as the Northeast-7 Conference in 1981 *

Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference The Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) is a college athletic conference comprising schools that compete in 15 sports (13 men's and 13 women's). It has 220 member institutions in NCAA Divisions I, II, and III, ranging in location fro ...

( Division I) (1985–1989) *

(Division I) (1990–2022) ** Known as the North Atlantic Conference from 1990 to 1996 * Independent (College Division/ Division I) (2023)

Venues

Early venues

In its early years as a Division II program, Hartford played home games on campus. It began to use off-campus venues in the mid-1980s. These venues included

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

Beehive Field Beehive Field is a stadium in New Britain, Connecticut. The ballpark has a capacity of 4,700. It is primarily used for baseball and was the home of the New Britain Red Sox (Boston Red Sox AA affiliate) from the time of their move to the city in 1 ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Muzzy Field Muzzy Field is a stadium in Bristol, Connecticut adjacent to Rockwell Park. It has been in use since 1912 for both baseball and football. The brick-faced grandstand, with a capacity of 4,900 people, was built in 1939. It features a ring of tall p ...

East Hartford East Hartford is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 51,045 at the 2020 census. The town is located on the east bank of the Connecticut River, directly across from Hartford, Connecticut. It is home to aerospac ...

's Ray McKenna Field, and

Simsbury Simsbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 24,517 at the 2020 census. The town was incorporated as Connecticut's 21st town in May 1670. History Early history At the beginning of the 17th century, th ...

's Memorial Field.

Fiondella Field

Since it opened at the start of the 2006 season, on-campus Fiondella Field has been the program's home. It has a

seating capacity Seating capacity is the number of people who can be seated in a specific space, in terms of both the physical space available, and limitations set by law. Seating capacity can be used in the description of anything ranging from an automobile that ...

of 1,000 spectators and an

artificial turf Artificial turf is a surface of synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commer ...

surface.

Dunkin' Donuts Park

Opened in 2017 Dunkin' Donuts Park has served as Hartford's second home stadium in downtown Hartford with a

of 6,056.

Year-by-year records

Below is a table of the program's yearly records as both a Division II and Division I program. {, class="wikitable" , - align="center" , -style="background: #ffffdd;" , colspan="8" align="center" , Dvision I

Awards

Conference awards

*America East Coach of the Year-

Justin Blood Justin Blood (born November 20, 1979) is an American baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with e ...

(2018)

All-Americans

* Nicholas Dombkowski * Nick Campana * Sean Newcomb

MLB Draft

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - ! style=";", Year ! style=";", Round ! style=";", Pick ! style=";", Name ! style=";", Team , - , 1975 , , 14th , , 317 , ,

Gary LaRocque Gary LaRocque is the director of player development for the St. Louis Cardinals, a Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise. A graduate of the University of Hartford, he was an All-American shortstop. LaRocque began his professional baseball career ...

, , Milwaukee Brewers , - , 1985 , , 21st , , 542 , , John Tuozzo , , New York Mets , - , 1989 , , 4th , , 110 , ,

, , Boston Red Sox , - , 1989 , , 22nd , , 557 , , Pat Hedge , , Baltimore Orioles , - , 1989 , , 33rd , , 769 , , Brian Crowley , , Texas Rangers (baseball), Texas Rangers , - , 1989 , , 55th , , 1299, , Mark Czarkowski , , Seattle Mariners , - , 1993 , , 43rd , , 1207, , Kurt Grashaw , , St. Louis Cardinals , - , 1994 , , 29th , , 798 , , Scott LaRock , , Colorado Rockies , - , 1994 , , 29th , , 799 , , Scott Hilt , , Minnesota Twins , - , 1998 , , 36th , , 1084, ,

, , New York Mets , - , 2004 , , 21st , , 627 , , Scott Roy , , Toronto Blue Jays , - , 2014 , , 1st , , 15 , ,

, , Los Angeles Angels , - , 2014 , , 9th , , 275 , , Brian Hunter , , Cincinnati Reds , - , 2014 , , 30th , , 891 , , James Alfonso, , Seattle Mariners , - , 2015 , , 35th , , 1059, , Trey Stover , , Kansas City Royals , - , 2017 , , 13th, , 379 , , Erik Ostberg , , Tampa Bay Rays , - , 2017 , , 23rd, , 688 , , Ben Bengtson , , Pittsburgh Pirates , - , 2017 , , 32nd, , 955 , , David MacKinnon , , Los Angeles Angels , - , 2018 , , 20th, , 604 , , Seth Pinkerton , , Minnesota Twins

Baseball Hall of Fame

{, class="wikitable" style="text-align: center" , - ! style=";", Name ! style=";", Teams ! style=";", Position ! style=";", Years ! style=";", Inducted , - ,

, , Red Sox, Astros , , 1B , , 1987-1989 , , 2017 , - , colspan="5" style="", Total MLB Hall of Famers – 1

Notes

References

External links

Official website
{{University of Hartford