21  Joe Pennucci Last College: Northern Colorado ('02) Position: Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator

Joe Pennucci recently completed his fifth season as an assistant coach on Matt Senk's staff and serves as the team's recruiting coordinator. Pennucci also works with the hitters and is responsible for overall team defense, working individually with the infielders and catchers.

Under Pennucci's guidance, the 2011 Seawolves ranked first in the country in doubles per game (2.7), ninth in batting average (.316) and 11th in scoring (7.2 runs per game). Carmona and Travis Jankowski also finished the season, first and second, respectively, in the America East in batting average.

Pennucci has also shown that he is among the best defensive coaches in the country as the Seawolves led the country with a .985 fielding percentage in 2011. The Seawolves shined defensively in 2010 as well, ranking 30th in the country with a .973 fielding percentage.

As the recruiting coordinator, Pennucci has helped attract student-athletes of the highest athletic and academic caliber to Long Island. In the five classes that Pennucci has assembled, he has recruited some of the top players from the Northeast region, as well as Canada, California, and Florida.

Pennucci has shown that he can recruit and help develop players that can play at the next level as juniors Nick Tropeano and Pat Cantwell were each selected in the 2011 MLB First-Year Player Draft. Tropeano was taken in the fifth round by the Houston Astros and Cantwell went in the 39th round to Baltimore Orioles.

Last season, Brandon McNitt earned America East Rookie of the Year honors, just a year after William Carmona earned the honor. Both were each named Freshman All-American as well by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.

As a sophomore, Carmona became the first America East player since 1998 to be named a first team All-American as he led the America East with a .357 batting averaged and ranked second in the country with 27 doubles.

Carmona also became the first player since future major leaguer Kevin Mench in the late 90's to be America East Rookie of the Year as a freshman and Player of the Year as a sophomore. He was also one of three Seawolves to be named to the America East All-Academic team, the most of any team in the conference, and in 2010, Tyler Johnson was named the America East Scholar Athlete for baseball.

Prior to his time at Stony Brook, Pennucci served as the associate head baseball coach and recruiting coordinator for the Dominican College Chargers in Orangeburg, NY for two seasons. The Chargers won two conference championships and received an NCAA Regional bid in 2006 after posting a 42-19 record. Pennucci helped the Chargers win 69 games in two seasons.

Pennucci started his college playing career at Garden City Community College in Kansas. After one season at GCCC he played three seasons at Dana College in Blair, Nebraska where he was an all-conference catcher.

Pennucci grew up in Loveland, Colorado where he attended Loveland High School. He coached for four seasons prior to his collegiate career.

He graduated with a psychology degree from the University of Northern Colorado and earned his Masters of Arts liberal studies from Stony Brook University.