Tony Rosselli becomes new Rex manager
Oct. 24—Tony Rosselli, a former Rex baseball player himself, has been named field manager of the Terre Haute-based team for the 2024 Prospect League season.
The team announced the move Tuesday.
The Rex finished last season under interim manager Culley DeGroote, who stepped in and guided the team to six victories in the last 10 games. DeGroote replaced Harry Markotay in July. The Rex finished the 2023 season with a 22-33 overall record.
Tony Rosselli played college ball at Indiana State. He played for the Rex in 2014 and signed with the United Shore Professional Baseball League, playing in that Asian winter baseball league in Taiwan in 2017. Rosselli later signed with the Chicago Dogs of the American Association minor league from 2018-2020. In 2021, he played for the Milwaukee Milkmen and Kane County Cougars.
The Rex also announced assistant coach Jacob Harden will return to the dugout next season. Harden also is in his third year as head coach at Linton High School, having led the Miners to their first regional championship in 2022.
"My experience from being both a player and a volunteer assistant coach at Indiana State under coach Mitch Hannahs helped prepare me to play in the Coastal Plain League as a player and a head coach," Rosselli said in a club news release.
"My plan is to have the same expectations as I would of any team, I get to be a part of, and I am grateful to be coming back to an organization I played for and back to my hometown.
"With that being said, there's work to be done here. Winning a championship is not an easy task, a lot of things must go right to win it all. I plan on bringing a competitive nature with elite athletes both locally and across the nation to keep Rex Baseball to that high standard it's traditionally had."
Rosselli, a Terre Haute native who also played at Terre Haute North High School, started 120 games during his ISU career, carrying a .290 batting average with 86 runs batted in and 22 home runs. He also was a volunteer assistant coach throughout the Sycamores' 2022 season under Hannahs. before heading to North Carolina last summer as head coach for the Wilson Tobs in the Coastal Plain League. The following two summers, he played in the Coastal Plain League with the Edenton Steamers and won a Petitt Cup.
Rosselli also owns a business, Alpha Performance LLC.
