Returning for his fourth season with the Heidelberg coaching staff is Chad Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald assists will all facets of the program, working closing with the Berg pitching staff. In January of 2011 he was promoted to associate head coach.
Fitzgerald has guided one of the top pitching staffs in the Ohio Athletic Conference and the nation during his stint at the Berg. In just three years, Fitzgerald had led three All-Americans, the 2010 Mideast Region Pitcher of Year and the 2009 and 2010 OAC Pitcher of the Year. Along the way five hurlers have picked up Mideast Region honors and eight have been All-OAC selections.
In the classroom, Heidelberg’s pitching contingent has excelled, as Nathan James earned the inaugural Elite 88 Award in 2010, to highlight four Academic All-OAC honorees and one all-district pick under Fitzgerald’s mentoring.
Fitzgerald has assisted with the continued success of the program over the course of the last three years which has seen Heidelberg set the top-two single season records for wins, highlighted by 42 wins in 2010. The Berg has won both the OAC Regular Season and Tournament titles in each of his three years, while earning the number one seed in the NCAA Championships Mideast Regional every year as well. The Berg claimed its first regional championship and made its first trip to the NCAA Division III World Series in 2010.
Members of his staff sit atop the single season record book in four categories and are the leaders in three career record book columns. Since 2008, Heidelberg has set four team single season pitching marks.
Fitzgerald was a pitcher and two-time Academic All-American at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa. Seton Hill racked up 124 victories over the course of his four-year career, including a 45-20 season in 2006. In 2006, Seton Hill also claimed the American Mideast Conference Championship and went on to win the NAIA Region IX and the East Coast Super Regional’s, earning a bid to the NAIA World Series. Fitzgerald posted a 4-1 record on the mound in 10 appearances, with a 3.69 earned run average during the Griffins’ championship season in 2006.
Fitzgerald is a native of Hermitage, Pa. and a 2003 graduate of Hickory High School and a 2007 graduate of Seton Hill with a degree in marketing and human resource management. He received his master of business administration from Heidelberg in 2009.