FROM CBB NEWS SOURCE
AMHERST, Mass. – Former Minuteman third baseman Ryan Franczek and recent Wheaton College graduate Ryan Bradley have joined the UMass baseball coaching staff, head coach Mike Stone announced on Monday. Both will begin their first season with the Minutemen in 2011, Franczek serving as an assistant coach and Bradley as a volunteer assistant.
“The addition of Ryan Franczek and Ryan Bradley provides us with two good young energetic assistant coaches,” said Stone. “Both are eager to learn and to adapt to the transition from player to coach. We look forward to what they both can bring to the improvement of our baseball program.”
Franczek, who played at UMass from 2005-08, was a .286 career hitter (155-for-579), totaling 34 doubles, seven triples 12 home runs, 73 RBI and 155 runs scored. He appeared in 164 career games, which ranks ninth all-time, starting 152. His career walks total (77) is presently tied for 10th all-time at UMass.
Franczek’s best campaign with the Minutemen was in 2006 when he saw action in 42 games as a sophomore, hit .307, drove in 27 runs and scored 33. He was awarded The E. Joseph Thompson Memorial MVP Trophy that season. Franczek had four triples in 2006, tying him currently for ninth in the UMass record book for a single season and also ranks tied for sixth in a season with 10 hit by pitches that year.
As senior in 2008, Franczek was presented with the Coaches’ Award, going to the team’s most improved player. He had 15 doubles and scored 39 runs in his final collegiate campaign.
Franczek, a native of Chicopee, Mass., graduated from UMass with a degree in Resource Economics in May 2009. He served as head freshmen baseball coach at his fomer high school, Chicopee Comprehensive, in the spring of 2010.
Bradley served as an undergraduate assistant coach at Wheaton, instructing the team’s outfielders and hitters. He served as the first base coach during the 2009 and 2010 seasons, while also preparing and analyzing in-game scouting reports and being actively involved in all aspects of managing the program.
Bradley helped coach the Lyons to two conference titles in 2008 and 2010 and two New England Regional appearances. Wheaton posted a 98-32 record during Bradley’s three seasons with the squad produced nine NEIBA All-New England honorees and three All-Americans.
During Bradley’s time at Wheaton, the Lyons were consistently ranked among the top-25 baseball programs at the Division III level with the team’s highest ranking coming in 2009 where the Lyons spent two weeks in the No. 2 spot.
Bradley graduated from Wheaton in 2010 with a degree in Economics and minor in History.
