Merrimack Warriors baseball

Last updated
Merrimack Warriors
Baseball current event.svg 2025 Merrimack Warriors baseball team
Merrimack Warriors.svg
Founded1980 (1980)
University Merrimack College
Head coach Brian Murphy (4th season)
Conference Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference
Location North Andover, Massachusetts
Home stadium Warrior Baseball Diamond
Nickname Warriors
ColorsBlue and gold [1]
   
NCAA tournament appearances
Division II: 1990, 1996, 1999, 2018
Conference tournament champions
Northeast-10: 1990, 1995, 1996, 2018
Conference regular season champions
Northeast-10: 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999

The Merrimack Warriors baseball team is the varsity intercollegiate athletic team of the Merrimack College in North Andover, Massachusetts, United States. The team competes in the National Collegiate Athletic Association's Division I and is a member of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. [2]

Contents

History

The Merrimack baseball program was started in 1980. They joined the Northeast-10 Conference in 1985. While the first few seasons were dismal, the 1988 season saw the team go 9-7 in the NE-10 and 24-15 overall but they finished it off with a win in the ECAC North tournament. [3] This was their first winning season since their inaugural season. They would follow this up next season by going 19-17-2 overall and winning their second straight ECAC North tournament title.

Under head coach Ed Morrison, the Warriors won the NE10 tournament in 1990 as the 4th seed to clinch their first NE-10 title and reach the NCAA Division II Tournament for the first time in program history. [4] Morrison left after the 1992 season and was replaced by Barry Rosen. The Warriors won the regular season title four straight years from 1994 to 1997, with a ECAC title occurring in 1995 to go along with NE-10 tournament championships in 1995 and 1996. They reached the NCAA Tournament in 1996 for the second time in program history. The 1999 team won their fifth regular season title and despite losing in the tournament final, they received an invite to the NCAA Tournament. [5]

The team did not make a major run again until 2013, when they went 30-19 and made it to the NE10 championship final, losing to New Haven. The 2018 team beat New Haven to win the NE-10 title and make the NCAA Tournament for the first time in nearly two decades. In 2020, the Warriors joined NCAA Division I with the Northeast Conference. Their season was cut short after going 6–9 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, their first full season as a D-I program, they went 19–22. The 2024 team had their first winning season as a D-I program at 33–26 and advanced to their first NEC tournament and made it to the Semifinals before losing to Long Island.

In 2025, the Warriors joined the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference. [6]

Head Coaches

YearsCoachOverall recordRegular season titlesConference titlesNCAA appearances
1980-1980James Licciardi14-6-1000
1984-1992Ed Morrison111-174-1011
1993-2003Barry Rosen207-231-2522
2004-2010Joe Sarno118-179000
2011-2014Jim Martin82-100000
2015-2021 Nick Barese 153-130011
2022-present Brian Murphy 87–121–2000

source [7]

Conference Memberships

Player/Coaches Awards

NEC Rookie of the year

ECAC Rookie of the year

NE10 Player of the year

Source: [8]

NE10 Rookie of the year

Bob Bellizzi NE10 Coach of the Year award

All Americans

Merrimack Athletics hall of fame

The following is a list of people associated with the Merrimack men's Baseball program who were elected into the Merrimack college Athletic Hall of Fame (induction date in parentheses)

Warriors drafted to the MLB

PlayerPositionDraft YearRoundTeam
Frank CrinellaINF201539th Baltimore Orioles
Joe MantoniPitcher201318th Cincinnati Reds
Ryan O'Rourke Pitcher201013thMinnesota Twins
John GuilmetPitcher199734th Detroit Tigers
Garrett Larkin3rd base199619th Pittsburgh Pirates
Jerry ParentOut Fielder199531st Milwaukee Brewers
George Evangelista3rd Base199047th Texas Rangers

Postseason Results

Division II

Merrimack has participated in the NCAA Division II baseball tournament four times.

YearRoundOpponentsResult
1990First Round Sacred Heart

New Haven

L 10-6

L 19-2

1996First Round

Second Round

Adelphi

New Haven Adelphi

L 8-2

W 2-1 L 9-2

1999First Round

Second Round

UMass Lowell

Adelphi Umass Lowell

W 3-1

L 7-6 L 12-2

2018First Round Le Moyne

Wilmington

L 3-2

L 10-5

ECAC Tournament

The warriors appeared in the ECAC tournament 3 times and were victorious all 3 times.

YearCoachOverall recordResult
1988Ed Morrison24-15Champions
1989Ed Morrison19-17-1Champions
1995Barry Rosen28-13Champions

References

  1. "Merrimack College Brand Guidelines" . Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  2. https://merrimackathletics.com/sports/baseball
  3. https://ecacsports.com/sports/2016/5/21/sports-bsb-Championships-PastChampionsIII.aspx
  4. https://northeast10.org/documents/2025/1/31//Baseball_Record_Book_2023_24_2.pdf
  5. https://merrimackathletics.com/sports/2017/7/27/archives-baseball.aspx
  6. https://www.merrimack.edu/news/merrimack-college-accepts-invitation-to-join-metro-atlantic-athletic-conference/
  7. Merrimack season records https://s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/sidearm.nextgen.sites/merrimack.sidearmsports.com/documents/2017/7/27/Baseball_Year_by_Year_Results.pdf
  8. NE10 baseball archives https://northeast10.org/documents/2025/1/31//Baseball_Record_Book_2023_24_2.pdf

Warrior Baseball Diamond