Recently completing his fourth season as the 18th head coach for the College of the Holy Cross, and now entering his fifth season at the helm in 2012, Greg DiCenzo has continued to bring the baseball program to new heights.
The most recently completed 2011 season saw the Crusaders finish with a winning overall record for the first time since 1991. 2011 also marked the first time in the program’s 136-year history that the team has finished four straight seasons with at least 20 victories. Two players earned first team All-Patriot League honors, three players were named to the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association Division 1 All-Star team and three players were named to the inaugural Patriot League All-Academic team. The Holy Cross pitching staff broke the single-season record for saves and strikeouts, and to add to their accomplishments, junior left-handed pitcher, John Pedrotty, was drafted in the 13th round and signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Pedrotty’s draft status placed him as the first Division I college player selected in the state of Massachusetts. Pedrotty is the 127th player in the history of the Holy Cross baseball program to sign a professional contract.
In his first season at Holy Cross, DiCenzo was named the 2008 Patriot League Coach of the Year as the Crusaders qualified for the Patriot League Tournament for the first time since 2001 and for the third time in the program's history. He became only the second coach to ever be named the league's coach of the year in his first season. Holy Cross had a 21-28 overall record (11-9 in Patriot League play) marking the first 20-win season since 1980. Also for the first time in school history a Holy Cross pitcher was named the Patriot League Pitcher of the Year as Matt Shapiro earned the honor.
In DiCenzo's second season at the helm, Holy Cross again continued its trend of "firsts" in the program. The Crusader ball club was able to qualify for the Patriot League Tournament for the second year in a row and the first time in back-to-back seasons in the history of the program. 2009 also became the first time in program history that Holy Cross finished the season with a winning record in Patriot League play in back-to-back seasons, the first time they finished tied for first place in the Patriot League loss column and the first time since the 1922-1923 season that Holy Cross baseball boasted back-to-back 20+ win seasons. The 2009 season marked just the third time in program history that the Patriot League Player of the Year (Junior - Matt Perry) donned the purple and white. Posting its highest regular season win total since 1978, Holy Cross baseball also set new single-season records for runs, hits, doubles, home runs, runs batted in and total bases.
2010 brought another year of exciting baseball to the Cross. The Crusaders, once again, were able to finish in the top three for the final Patriot League regular season standings, joining Army as the only other team to finish that high in each of the last three seasons. Holy Cross also won its first-ever Patriot League playoff series, as well as advancing to its first Patriot League Championship series in program history. Another 20+ win season marks the first time since the early 1920's that the team has reached 20 wins in three straight seasons. For the third consecutive season, the Crusader roster boasted one of the Patriot League major award recipients in Rookie of the Year, Stephen Wadsworth, as he also garnered PingBaseball.com's third team freshman All-America honors. Holy Cross was also tied for first in All-Patriot League selections (six in total), the most ever in program history. The 2010 ‘Saders also registered a program record-high in almost all offensive categories, including a .319 batting average, a .477 slugging percentage, 367 runs, 569 hits, 114 doubles, 45 home runs, 852 total bases and 340 RBI. Defensively, the team finished with a record of 1,291 putouts and 557 assists and tied the record number of double plays turned (42). Lastly, the 2010 squad broke pitching records for team saves (10), innings pitched (430.1) and total strikeouts (300).
DiCenzo came to Holy Cross from Northeastern University, where he served as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator for five seasons. During his time at Northeastern, the Huskies won the America East Tournament and advanced to the Baton Rouge Regional in 2003. The Huskies won the America East Regular Season Championship in 2004 and 2005. The NU pitching staff set the school record for strikeouts in DiCenzo's first four seasons as pitching coach. He had two pitchers earn America East Pitcher of the Year honors and four of his pitchers were selected in the Major League Baseball Draft, including Adam Ottavino who was drafted in the first round by the St. Louis Cardinals in 2006 and who recently made his Major League debut in 2010. Additionally, six other positional players had been drafted or signed to professional contracts while DiCenzo held the title of Recruiting Coordinator/Pitching Coach at Northeastern University.
DiCenzo was also an assistant coach for the Falmouth Commodores of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League for four seasons from 2002-2005. While on the Cape, DiCenzo had the opportunity to work with many of the top collegiate baseball players in the country, including Major League players David Aardsma, Matt Antonelli, Cliff Pennington, Jacoby Ellsbury, Chris Leroux, Jensen Lewis, Chad Huffman and Brian Bocock.
A native of Duxbury, Mass., DiCenzo earned three degrees from St. Lawrence University with a Bachelor of Science Degree (1998), a Masters Degree in Education (2000) and a Masters Degree in Education Administration (2002). He spent four seasons on the baseball coaching staff at his alma mater and two seasons as an assistant football coach. In baseball, he was an assistant coach for three seasons and served as interim head coach in 2002. As an athlete, DiCenzo was a four-year member of the St. Lawrence baseball team, captaining the team as a senior. He was also a one-year member of St. Lawrence's men's soccer team, and a four-time All-Conference kicker and punter for the school's football team.
