UNF Ospreys reach out to veteran college assistant Joe Mercadante as next baseball coach

The University of North Florida has hired a baseball coach with deep Florida ties going back to high school ball.

Joe Mercadante, who played at the University of Florida and coached at Miami, Stetson and Central Florida, was named on Friday to replace Tim Parenton, who stepped down on May 30 for health reasons after six seasons.

Mercadante has been an assistant for the last two years at Pittsburgh, where he worked with the outfielders. Prior to that, he was an assistant at Stetson for four seasons as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator.

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"Joe is known as a tireless grinder on the recruiting trail and hands-on developer of future big leaguers on the diamond," Pitt coach Mike Bell said when he hired Mercadante.

Mercadante is the fourth coach in UNF history, following Dusty Rhodes, Smoke Laval and Parenton. It's his first head coaching job at the college level.

From 2006-2011, Mercadante was on the Hurricanes’ staff, a period of time in which UM reached seven consecutive NCAA tournaments, won four regional titles and went to the College World Series twice. He worked with the team’s hitters, catchers and as an assistant recruiting coordinator.

He was also on the staff at UCF for one season.

Morrow says Mercadante 'a great fit'

"As we went along the hiring process it became evident that Joe Mercadante would be a great fit for UNF and UNF baseball," UNF athletic director Nick Morrow said in a statement. "He has a positive reputation throughout the baseball community for his relentless recruiting efforts, the development of his student-athletes and being a coach of high character.

"Joe is a Florida native and is well-connected throughout the state, allowing him to step in and make an immediate impact on the program."

Mercadante said he has talked to most of UNF’s returning players already and will be working to sell the ones who are considering the transfer portal on his vision for the program.

He said balance and depth are what wins in college baseball and he said there was enough talent in the portal to replenish the roster.

“It’s strong on the supply side right now,” he said. “There were some really good ballplayers out there and we’ll find them, put the pieces together to put a competitive team on the field.”

Mercadante said he likes the long ball as much as any coach but the fundamentals won’t be neglected.

“You see the homers but it comes back to pitching and defense,” he said. “You need to place a premium on defending the game at a high level, getting outs, and not giving up freebies, the walks, and hit batters. We're going to be an offensive club that finds different ways to score runs. The standard, our expectation is to compete for championships every year.”

New coach cites UNF's direction

Mercadante said the future of UNF athletics is something that attracted him.

“This is a great institution with a tremendous academic profile,” he said. “It has a very rich backyard when it comes to the talent of high school players and Nick’s vision and leadership, what he believes in were all things that were very attractive to me.

Mercadante was a catcher on the high school and college levels. He was a four-year letter winner at P.K. Yonge in Gainesville, hitting .408 for his career.

After playing junior college baseball in Alabama and New Orleans, Mercadante played two seasons with the Florida Gators in 2002 and 2003, hitting .312 in 37 games, including a .471 average in 21 games during the 2002 seasons. He also did not make an error in either season.

Mercadante earned a bachelor's degree at Florida in exercise and sports science in 2003 and then got his master's in the same program at UF in 2006.

Mercadante and his wife Katie have two sons, Roman and CT.

Parenton was 136-148 overall and 57-64 in the ASUN.  The Ospreys were 28-27 overall and 13-17 in the conference this season and failed to reach the ASUN tournament when they were swept by Jacksonville in the final series of the regular season.

In addition, the team's leading hitter, Austin Brinling, and its top power hitter, Bartram Trail graduate Alex Lodise, transferred soon after Parenton's resignation. Brinling will play for South Carolina and Lodise for Florida State.

UNF baseball coaches, records

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Former UF player, UM assistant Joe Mercadante hired as UNF baseball coach