Jammers Manager Named Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League Coach Of Year

UTICA – The Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League announced Tuesday the selection of Anthony Barone as the 2018 PGCBL Coach of the Year. Barone, the head coach of the Jamestown Jammers, was selected as the Coach of the Year for the second season in a row, and earns the honor via a vote of his peers.
Barone has led the Jammers since the franchise’s inception in summer collegiate baseball, and has been with the team in the PGCBL since 2016. In those three seasons, the Jammers have tallied 94 wins, have qualified for the PGCBL Playoffs every season, and have played in back-to-back PGCBL Finals. The head Jammer is the first coach in PGCBL history to win the Coach of the Year award twice.
This season, the Jammers posted the best record in the PGCBL, going 31-14. The team started the season 18-4 in the month of June, and were nearly unbeatable at home, winning 16 consecutive home games. Jamestown was the first team in the league to lock up a playoff spot, winning the West Division by nine games. That record gave Jamestown the top overall seed in the PGCBL Playoffs, where the Jammers knocked off the Geneva Red Wings in three games to go back to the PGCBL Finals.
In the Finals, which were played exclusively at Shuttleworth Park, Barone led his team to a 2-1 series victory over the Amsterdam Mohawks to provide the City of Jamestown with their first baseball champion since the 1991 Jamestown Expos won the New York-Penn League. The three-game victory over the Mohawks avenged the end of the 2017 season, where the Jammers lost a Game 3 to the Mohawk Valley DiamondDawgs.
After winning the PGCBL championship in Amsterdam, Barone spoke of what it meant to bring a championship to a city he calls home.
“I’m so happy for the city of Jamestown,” Barone said. “Any time you can do something special like this for a city like Jamestown, it means a lot.”
During the regular season, the Jammers ranked in the top three in the league in pitching and defense, recording a 4.34 team ERA and a .966 team fielding percentage. At the plate, Jamestown specialized in getting on base and turning those opportunities into runs. Despite finishing eighth in the league in batting average, the Jammers were one of only four teams to score 300 or more runs, and finished third in on base percentage. The Jammers also specialized in the dramatic, clinching the division title on a walk-off, and doing the same in Game 1 of both the PGCBL Semifinals and the PGCBL Finals.
Throughout this week, the PGCBL will be unveiling its yearly awards, continuing with today’s announcement of the PGCBL Coach of the Year. The week’s schedule is as follows:
Monday: PGCBL All-League Team
Wednesday: PGCBL Pitcher of the Year
Thursday: PGCBL Player of the Year