UNF athletic director Nick Morrow issues a challenge to new baseball coach Joe Mercadante

The time for the University of North Florida baseball team to win championships, with the wealth of riches within the local recruiting base and the resources to attract talent outside the First Coast, is now.

That’s the charge issued to new baseball coach Joe Mercadante by UNF athletic director Nick Morrow on Thursday at the UNF Arena Bank of London Hospitality Suite during Mercadante’s first extensive media availability since he was hired on June 23 as the fourth baseball coach in university history, replacing Tim Parenton.

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“Under coach Merc’s leadership, I fully expect this UNF baseball program to return to its winning tradition,” Morrow said during his introduction of Mercadante, referring to six NAIA district championships and seven conference championships at the NCAA Division II level under Dusty Rhodes. “I expect to win championships. I expect us to compete in NCAA regionals. And all of this is possible with the alumni, fans and community rallying behind coach Merc and the UNF baseball program.”

Since joining Division I and the ASUN Conference in 2006, the Ospreys have never won a conference tournament title – the path to an NCAA berth — and have one regular-season championship, in 2015. Rhodes led UNF to an 879-420 record (.678) and 13 post-season berths in the first 23 years in the program but the Ospreys under Smoke Laval and Parenton combined to go 373-308 (.548) and never played beyond the conference tournament.

Morrow almost certainly laid down his edict during the interview process to Mercadante, a former University of Florida player and University of Miami assistant who emerged from an initial pool of more than 100 applicants to coach the Ospreys.

But Morrow spelled them out again out in a very public fashion at the UNF Arena’s Bank of England Hospitality Suite — yet made it clear he was confident in the third coaching hire he has made since taking over as the athletic director in July of 2021, following women’s basketball coach Erika Lambert and softball coach Jeff Conrad.

“His recruiting connections and his reputation for being a recruiter throughout the state of Florida were major selling points,” Morrow said. “He cares about his players and he’s a winner. It was very clear that coach Merc was ready to be a head coach and it was very clear that he was a great fit for UNF.”

Mercadante is ready for the bar Morrow has raised.

“It’s a time in my life when I feel like I’m ready to be a head coach and there’s no better place than UNF baseball,” he said. “This is an awesome environment … and a humbling moment for me.”

A strong recruiting background

Mercadante has been an assistant at Pittsburgh for the last two seasons but had five coaching stops in Florida covering 17 years at the Division I, high school and travel ball level. His longest stint was seven years with the University of Miami from 2004-2011, and he also made stops at Stetson and UCF.

Mercadante was either the recruiting coordinator or assistant coordinator at Miami, Stetson and Pitt.

He’s a Florida native and played high school baseball at Gainesville P.K. Yonge. After playing at two junior colleges, he spent two years with the Gators.

“Recruiting is obviously the lifeblood of any program,” Mercadante said. “With the transfer portal and high school kids you have the unique ability every year to change your roster and address your needs. It’s also not about getting the players in here. It’s about getting them, coaching them, making sure we’re helping them each and every day to get better.”

Mercadante will start with the basics: recruiting the First Coast and Florida. He said out-recruiting the other in-state ASUN schools, Jacksonville, Stetson and Florida Gulf Coast, will be the key to winning the ASUN.

“The networks that we have within our coaching staff, and I’ve developed over the years should be a big strength for us,” he said. “The top half of the conference usually starts in the state of Florida with those schools. We’re going to compete with those guys, not just on the recruiting trail but on the baseball field.”

UNF has lost four to transfer portal

Mercadante made a big first step in that regard, signing Florida State transfer Cade Bush, a past Class 7A player of the year in South Florida. Bush (6 feet 3, 220 pounds) plays first base, the outfield and was a designated hitter, and could fill the power void left when Alex Lodise (who led the team with 16 homers) transferred to FSU.

But the Ospreys have also lost center fielder Austin Brinling (South Carolina), second baseman Aidan Sweatt (Liberty) and No. 2 starting pitcher Dominick Madonna (South Florida) to the transfer portal. Lodise and Brinling transferred before Mercadante was hired and he said the rest of the roster are keeping an open mind.

Losing Lodise and Sweatt also stings, because they are area products. Lodise played at Bartram Trail and Sweatt at Fernandina Beach.

But it appears several key players will be back: No. 1 starting pitcher Peter Holden (4-5, 4.45 ERA), catcher Jakob Runnels (.320, 14 homers, 57 RBI), first baseman Gabriel Esquivel (.240, eight homers, 25 RBI), and outfielders Cherokee Nichols (nine homers, 36 RBI, .277), a Fletcher graduate, and Cade Reich (.309, six homers, 30 RBI).

“The guys who are coming back want to be a part of this,” he said. “A lot of guys are excited to get back in.”

Stadium improvements coming

He also laid out the type of team fans can expect.

“We’re going to learn how to compete. We’re going to learn how to fight. We’re going to be resilient and we’re going learn how to prepare like a championship team,” he said “Our goal is to look back at the end of the year and feel we maximized the potential of every young man in our program, not just on the baseball field but as a person.”

Morrow said there will be some gradual improvements made to Harmon Stadium, which seats around 1,000, with the idea that the Ospreys could host an NCAA regional in the future – an accomplishment that would almost surely have to include an ASUN title.

Morrow said the priorities are renovations to the locker rooms and an increase in seating capacity to around 3,000.

“Some guys just want to come in and play but a locker room is a strong selling point,” he said. “We really need to address that. We want to make sure we can host a regional someday. Stetson did it not long ago.”

Mercadante said an improved stadium would be nice. But he first wants to improve the product on the field.

“Nick was very quick to make sure I understood there were some plans moving forward to improve the facility and that’s something we want to be able to do for the program to help us in recruiting,” he said. “But the type of young men that we’re recruiting, that shouldn’t be the priority for them. They should be worried about what we can do each and every day to help them get better, coach them and get them an opportunity to play for championships and make it to professional baseball.”

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Joe Mercadante challenged by UNF AD Nick Morrow: 'win championships'