Baseball Tradition

For over a century the baseball program has been and continues to be a premier sport on the Seton Hall Prep campus. Not only is it popular among the students of Seton Hall Prep, but also among the community at large. Pirates Baseball has drawn huge numbers of fans throughout its long history, and the baseball facility, which was first used in 1905, is still played on today by Seton Hall University. In the early years of the program, teams consisted of players from the high school and the college, and before the establishment of formal leagues and conferences, Seton Hall Prep played against collegiate teams, corporate teams, and civic teams regularly.
The first great name in the baseball program’s history would be Coach Jack Fish, who coached between 1926-1927, and brought Seton Hall Prep a 14-2 record, which was the best to date. Since then, the program has been highlighted with many great names, such as Mike Sheppard Jr., who continues to serve the program by coaching Eric Duncan, who after graduating in 2003 was drafted by the New York Yankees, and Rick Porcello, who after graduating in 2007 and leading the team to a #1 national rank, was named the Gatorade National Player of the Year and was drafted by the Detroit Tigers; he currently pitches for the Boston Red Sox. Other draftees include Paul Caffrey (’69), Tom Ard (’83), Joe Martinez (’01), Evan Danieli (’07), Jake Porcello (’09), Nick Ammirati (’09), John Norwood (’11), and Mike Sheppard III (’12).

The Baseball program has won a remarkable number of championships throughout the years. Since the creation of the Greater Newark Tournament, Seton Hall Prep has won 16 titles, including four straight from 1997-2000, and four straight from 2013-2016. The program has also championed the Iron Hills Conference 15 times, a conference that many considered to be the best conference in New Jersey baseball, which included schools from Essex, Morris, and Union counties. With the dissolution of the Iron Hills Conference, Seton Hall Prep entered the Super Essex Conference, which was established in 2010. In the six years of the conference’s existence, Seton Hall Prep has won 5 titles. Finally, and most impressively, since 1948 Seton Hall Prep Baseball has been crowned state champion 30 times. This included 15 championships in the 17-year span from 1948-1964. On top of that, the Baseball program has won 22 sectional and eight overall state championships.

The Seton Hall Prep Baseball program builds itself on pride and a winning tradition. Most recently, the 2016 Varsity Baseball Team added a county championship and a state championship, with an outstanding 28-3 record. The team finished No. 1 in NJ for the sixth time in program history as well as number 20 in the country in USA Today's poll. This is the 10th time the program has finished a season nationally ranked. The pride and brotherhood that has been deeply rooted in the program continues to attract many new student-athletes to the program and also continues to draw large numbers of fans to support the team at their new home at the Kelly Athletic Complex.