Staff

CHRIS CARRANO

• 2011 Rawlings National Gold Glove winner – Kean University.
• 2007 DIII National Champion – Kean University.
• Five years of collegiate coaching experience (including college recruitment). ∙ Three years of high school coaching experience.
• Seven years of travel baseball coaching experience.
• Coached two Rawlings Gold Glove winners.
• Played with four Rawlings Gold Glove winners.
• Coordinator of all infield camps/clinics for Baseball U North Jersey.
• Currently a high school special education teacher and earning his second master’s degree.

RALPH CITARELLA

• Ralph Citarella was twice a first-round draft pick out of St. Thomas Aquinas (Bishop Ahr) HS. Ralph reached the Major Leagues as a pitcher and has served as a pitching coach for both the Baseball U parent club in  South Jersey and Baseball U North Jersey.
• During the spring, Ralph is a pitching coach at Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen. In 2017, the team posted a sub-2.00 ERA and produced the Middlesex County Pitcher of the Year, three All-Conference pitchers,  and Two-Division I college commitments on the mound, with several more pitchers positioned to sign in the  next 12 months.
• Following his professional playing career, Citarella has been a professional pitching coach in the Atltantic With a collaborative style and not a “cloning” mentality, Coach Citarella works with pitchers of different  backgrounds and gets the most out of them.

JASON FIORE

• Coach Fiore is the current Head Coach at County College of Morris
• Coach Fiore enters his first year at the helm of perennial Juco power CCM in the spring and is responsible for all operations of their program.
• Jason Fiore is a partner and the GM of Baseball U North. He handles the daily operation of the program including communications, budget, and scheduling.
• Coach Fiore has coached the 18U summer team the past 3 summers compiling a 68-9 record during that span. His ability to recruit players going on to play college baseball and help prepare them for what they will endure at the next level is where he excels. His teams have won numerous Frazier World Series qualifiers and placed in the quarterfinals or higher in Diamond Nation, Baseball Heaven, and in 2018, a 4th place finish in the New England End of Summer Classic which saw some of the Northeast’s top teams compete.
• Coach Fiore played high school ball at Hudson Catholic HS in Jersey City. He went on to play collegiately at the University of Miami, County College of Morris, and Fairleigh Dickinson University-Madison. He was team MVP in 1991 and team captain in 1992 when he graduated with a BS in Business. After 10 years with the Jersey City Police Dept, Jason transferred to the Scotch Plains Police Dept where after 25 years of service has retired.

DENNIS McCAFFERY

• Cranford HS Varsity Head Coach
• Villanova University Grad & Former Anaheim Angel
• 2007 Star of Ledger New Jersey Coach of the Year
• Group III State Champions – 2010, 2012, 2013
• 2013-No. 1 in Final Star Ledger Top 2011 Sectional Championships
• 9 Union County Tournament Championships
• 14 Conference Championships
• 351-90 Career Record

MIKE MURRAY, JR.

• Mike Murray Jr. enters his sixth season as baseball coach at Saint Joseph High School in 2022 and his fourth year as Director of Athletics in 2017-2018.
• Coach Murray led the Falcons to the 2021 GMC tournament championship and was named NJ.com and Home News Tribune Coach of the Year for Middlesex County
• Coach Murray currently has nine college commits on his current Saint Joseph roster
• During the missed 2020 COVID-19 year, Coach Murray founded and ran the NJ Last Dance World Series, a 222 team tournament held statewide
• In Coach Murray’s second season leading the Falcons, the Falcons won the GMC Tournament Championship, had a twenty win season, went 17-3 against GMC opponents, and had eight players earn All-GMC Accolades and two All-New Jersey members. Kyle Angel was named GMC Pitcher of the Year and joined on first team by Ross Maertz and Brandon Warick. Jot Sot and Angel were named to com‘s All-State teams. In Coach Murray’s second season, the offense raised their team batting average 59 points and slugged 19 HR’s, an increase from one in the 2016 campaign. Coach Murray was named the 2017 GMC Red Division Coach of the Year and the NJ.com GMC Coach of the Year.In Coach Murray’s first season as Head Coach, the Falcons won 16 games and advanced to the semifinals of the Greater Middlesex Conference tournament. The team finished in a tie for 3rd in the Red Division with a 9-7 league record. During the 2016 campaign, The Falcons defeated then #1 team in the state, Steinert, 3-0 in the Autism Awareness Classic. During the 2016 season, the Falcons defeated two state champions from the season prior (Old Bridge, Cranford). The Falcons will return 6 position players and the three wins leaders on the mound from the 2016 campaign.
• Coach Murray was a 2012 Union County Tournament Champion and 2013 North II, Group IV State-Sectional Champion while Assistant Varsity Coach at Westfield High School.
• Coach Murray played in the San Francisco Giants organization from 2010-2012 where he was named Northwest League Player of the Month, Northwest League All-Star, and was a Northwest League 1st team All-League selection in 2011. Coach Murray finished his professional career with a .331 career batting average. Prior to his stint with the Giants, Mike played at Wake Forest from 2007-2010 in the Atlantic Coast Conference.
  Coach Murray Captained the Demon Deacons and was a three-year starter at Catcher. During his collegiate summers, Coach Murray won championships in the Valley Baseball League and the New England Collegiate Baseball League. In 2009, Mike was a Cape Cod League All-Star and All-League selection playing for the Chatham Anglers.
• Coach Murray was a four-year starter at Westfield HS, twice being named 1st team All-State and was an All-American as a Senior in 2006. He is a 2016 inductee to the Westfield High School Athletic Hall of Fame. He is Westfield High School’s All-Time leader in hits (155), at-bats (331), home runs (19), RBI (145), and extra-base hits (59). Coach Murray hit a school record (.560) as a SR, and is the record-holder for lowest strikeout percentage, striking out in just 12 of his 331 varsity at bats.
• Coach Murray comes from a coaching family, his dad Mike Sr. was a youth coach for more than 20 years in Union County after a playing career in the Chicago White Sox system. Mike’s younger brother A.J. (Georgia Tech) and sister Brittany (Maryland Softball) also captained their Division I teams.

NICK PACE

LIAM PENBERTHY

MIKE PLICK

JERRY RIPORTI

• Coach Riporti is an owner and director of Baseball U North Jersey and oversees personnel management, rosters, and coach management
• Coach Riporti is a member of two national softball Hall of Fames and competed nationally in the softball circuit
• Coach Riporti is an Assistant Coach at Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen who has helped the Falcons with two GMC titles, a state sectional final appearance, and two division titles in five seasons at Saint Joe’s
• As the father of a Division I athlete, Coach Riporti is also invaluable working with families through the recruiting process
• Coach Riporti manages and roves as a coach at several Baseball U levels spanning the top and bottom of our age groups, having managed our college-bound team and our 11U team.

MIKE SMITH

JASON WEISHOLTZ

Education:

• BS Accounting Albright College

Playing:

• High School:  1st Team All State 3b Non-Public B…1987
• High School:  Non-Public B State Champ…1987

Coaching:

• Rutgers Certified
• SPFYBA: Head coach house league in Scotch Plains from 2003-2008…ages 5u-10u
• Scotch Plains Tournament and Travel Team Head Coach; 2009-2010 ages 9u/10u
• • 2009 (9u) Cal Ripken District 12 Champion
  • 2010 (10u) Battle of the Boulevard (Elkridge, Maryland) Champion
• Garden State Knights Baseball Club Assistant and 1st base Coach; 2009-2011 ages 9u-13u
• Numerous tournament and league wins including (but not limited to) championships at:
  • USABL
  • Central Jersey Baseball League
  • Sports At The Beach (Rehoboth Beach, Delaware)
  • Cal Ripken Baseball (Aberdeen, Maryland)
  • ECTB (Reading, Pennsylvania)
  • Triple Crown Sports (Richmond, Virginia)
  • Cooperstown Dreams Park (Cooperstown, New York):104 Team Field.  Wins over top teams in Texas, Florida, and California. Reached Final 8 before falling to eventual tournament champion
• North Jersey Hobos Baseball Club Assistant and 1st base Coach; 2012-2013 ages 14u-15u
• Assisted Chris Reardon, Queens College Head Coach (DII)