Baseball

Tony Vittorio, the former 18-year head coach at the University of Dayton, enters his fifth year as head baseball coach at Wilmington College in 2023.

In just four years, Vittorio has turned a program which had one season with double-digit victories in a decade to a Quaker baseball program that's pushing for an Ohio Athletic Conference (OAC) Tournament berth. After the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out all but eight games of the 202 season, Vittorio guided the Quakers to an 11-27 record in a conference-only year in 2021 and followed that up with a 21-19 season last spring.

The 2022 year, which marked the first winning season since 2005, saw WC finish 8-10 in league games and featured one of NCAA Division III's best offenses with a top 10 batting average. Four Quakers garnered All-OAC honors including three individuals - Tyler Shaneyfelt, Caleb Scott and Zach Christensen - earning Second Team recognition.

In his first year as head coach, Vittorio mentored Gage Bley to First Team All-OAC honors, marking the first Quaker to garner such an honor in 15 years. Wilmington also had two others earn All-OAC recognition in Antonio Miller, who finished top 15 in the nation in stolen bases (32), and Nick Silvis.

Vittorio came to Wilmington having spent the last year as development director at Friends of the Jaclyn Foundation in Hopewell Junction, New York. He was responsible for raising awareness and funds for the organization which teams cancer patient children with high school and college teams across the country to enhance the quality of life for that child while that child is still on earth. 

Prior to that, Vittorio served as head baseball coach at Dayton for 18 seasons and left the program as its winningest coach with 463 victories. The Flyers crossed the 30-win plateau eight times under Vittorio's leadership as well as qualifying for eight Atlantic 10 Tournaments. His 2009 team finished 38-19 with an Atlantic 10 regular season championship. Three years later, the Flyers won the Atlantic 10 Tournament title and appeared in an NCAA Division I Regional.

Seven of Vittorio's former players were drafted in the Major League Baseball (MLB) draft including two individuals, Jerry Blevins and Craig Stammen, which play for the New York Mets and San Diego Padres respectively. The Dayton baseball program achieved a cumulative grade point average of 3.0 or high and graduated 95 percent of its student-athletes during the Vittorio tenure.

Before Dayton, Vittorio spent three seasons as head baseball coach at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW) and led the Mastadons to a 30-17 campaign in 1998. He was responsible for all aspects of the program as well as serving the athletics department as facilities manager.

Vittorio's first head coaching experience came at Lincoln Trail College in Robinson, Illinois. The program had won just two games the season before his arrival, but after Vittorio's final season in 1994, Lincoln Trail boasted a 45-28 record.

Between head coaching stints at Lincoln Trail and IPFW, Vittorio spent two years as an assistant baseball coach at the University of Kentucky. He got his coaching start as a graduate assistant coach at Indiana University.

Though the majority of Vittorio's coaching experience has been at the NCAA Division I level, he is no stranger to NCAA Division III having graduated from Hanover College in 1988 with a double major in business administration and physical education. He went on to earn a master's degree in sports management from Kentucky.

Vittorio resides in Wilmington.

*Last updated - Jan. 26, 2023