John Duffy enters his fourth season with La Salle as the Explorers pitching coach. The Malvern Prep graduate previously coached at Concordia College, a Division III school in Moorhead, MN, where five of his former pitchers signed professional contracts. In his first two years at La Salle the Explorer pitching staff showed dramatic improvement and the trend continued during the 2006 season. Prior to Coach Duffy's arrival, the La Salle pitching staff posted team ERAs of 10.24 in 2002 and 9.75 in 2003, which ranked 283 of 284 in Division I. In 2004, the Explorer staff posted a 5.74 ERA, a drop of four runs per game, and dipped even further in 2005 to 5.24, which was the lowest team ERA at La Salle in the last 25 years and ranked 158 of 284 in Division I, a jump of over 125 spots. In 2006, the La Salle staff continued its steady improvement and did even better in Atlantic 10 games, finishing with a 3.49 team ERA , fifth-best in the conference and the best for any team that did not make the A-10 playoffs. The staff led by juniors Dan Waters and Gerard Breslin finished in the top half of almost every pitching category and tied for second in fewest home runs allowed. The 3.49 team ERA in A-10 games was the best team ERA since La Salle joined the conference and continued the dramatic drop in conference team ERA which has fallen from 10.05 in 2002 and 8.45 in 2003 to 4.33 in 2005 and 3.49 in 2006. Duffy is a 1996 graduate of the University of Richmond, where he earned degrees in Finance and Economics. Duffy was named a Colonial Athletic Association Scholar for maintaining a 3.0 GPA throughout his four years. He was also voted the top Scholar Athlete of the Business School in 1996. Duffy pitched for all four seasons for the Spiders and finished his collegiate career with a record of 14-11. He was 10-4 in 1995 alone, just one win away from the school record and Duffy led the Spiders in games pitched in his final two seasons. He played for the Lowell Spinners, after signing with the Boston Red Sox in June of 1996. He led the Spinners in games pitched in a season, and still holds the franchise record, after finishing with a record of 3-4 on 29 appearances. Duffy continued playing professionally for the next eight seasons, playing with such organizations as the Atlantic City Surf, Somerset Patriots, Sioux City Explorers and the Fargo Moorhead RedHawks. He was selected to play for Team USA and competed in the Pan Am Cup in Panama City, Panama, picking up a win over Brazil. He was also selected as a Northern League All Star in 2001. In 2005, he was voted to the Fargo Moorhead Redhawks 10th Anniversary All-Time Team. In 2005, Duffy was the pitching coach for the Grays, a team in the professional independent Can American League of Professional Baseball. In February, it was announced, Duffy would be the head coach of the Silver Spring T-Bolts, a team in the Cal Ripken Sr. Collegiate Baseball League, where he will lead the team this summer. |
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