WILMINGTON, Ohio - Nearly 300 guests packed the Expo Center at the Clinton County Fairgrounds for the Wilmington College Baseball First Pitch Cook-Off Dinner on Saturday, Jan. 28.
The event's purpose was both to raise funds for the WC baseball program and to build relationships between student-athletes, parents, alumni and benefactors of the program.
"What a great event to start our 2023 baseball season," Head Baseball Coach Tony Vittorio said. "Obviously, this is a great fundraiser for our program, but what is most important to me is the moral support that we received from our parents, administrators and friends of our program."
The event began at 5:30 p.m. with a silent auction with programming starting at 6:30 p.m. Vittorio welcomed everyone, and after the 2023 team was introduced, dinner was served after an invocation from James McCarty, the father of assistant coach Daniel McCarty. Rather than a standard dinner, this event featured a unique cook-off where 22 different cooks made a special dish for everyone to try. The guests then voted on what dish was their favorite.
Mrs. Leo, the grandmother of junior Tyler Shaneyfelt, won the Golden Spatula, for her sauerkraut meatballs.
"We wanted to do something unique with our fundraiser," said Vittorio. "All of our cooks were fantastic."
After dinner, the night's two keynote speakers - Hal McCoy and Craig Stammen - were interviewed by WC Director of Athletic Communications Mitch Blankespoor. McCoy is a Hall of Fame sports writer who has covered the Cincinnati Reds since 1973. After being enshrined in Cooperstown, the Dayton Daily News columnist covered the University of Dayton baseball team, where Vittorio was a head coach for 18 years. Stammen, a Major League Baseball pitcher for the Washington Nationals and San Diego Padres since 2009, is a native of Versailles, Ohio, and played for Vittorio at Dayton for three seasons.
McCoy spoke of his time covering the Big Red Machine, whom he named, interviewing Sparky Anderson and his career in journalism while being legally blind. Stammen told the story of his recruitment to Dayton, finding out he was drafted/called up to the major leagues and appearing on the Today Show for his wife hitting a hole-in-one while on the couple's honeymoon in Hawaii.
"Both of our speakers - Hal McCoy and Craig Stammen - were awesome," Vittorio said. "A big shoutout to them for helping us draw a big crowd."
When the speakers were finished being interviewed, the runners of the 50-50 raffle, apparel raffle, silent auction and live auction. The winner of the 50-50 raffle was a WC baseball alumnus whose wife surprised him with tickets to the fundraiser. Upon winning, he graciously donated half of the winnings back to the program.
Wilmington, which finished 2022 with a 21-19 record for the program's first winning season in over a decade, kicks off its 2023 campaign at Piedmont University in Demorst, Georgia, on Feb. 17-19.
