DURHAM, N.C. – USA Baseball named its 2017 18U National Team staff on Wednesday, highlighted by the naming of Andy Stankiewicz (Grand Canyon University) as Manager. Joining Stankiewicz on the staff is Rusty Filter (Stanford University), Bill Mosiello (TCU) and Gregg Ritchie (George Washington University).
The 18U National Team will compete in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, from September 1–10. Team USA is the three-time defending World Cup champion and will look to become the second country to win four-straight gold medals in the tournament.
“The 18U National Team program has assembled an elite coaching staff for 2017 U-18 World Cup,” said Paul Seiler, Executive Director/CEO of USA Baseball. “This staff has experience coaching at the collegiate, minor league and major league level, and we are confident they will positively influence our athletes developmentally and personally as they compete for a fourth-consecutive World Cup title.”
Andy Stankiewicz returns to the 18U National Team coaching ranks for the first time since he led the U.S. to a gold medal in the 2014 COPABE Pan Am “AAA” Championships in La Paz, Mexico. He was previously an assistant coach for the Collegiate National Team that won a bronze medal at the Honkbal Baseball Week tournament in 2012, and has twice worked with the 17U National Team Development Program (NTDP).
In his sixth season at the helm of Grand Canyon University, Stankiewicz has led the Lopes in a successful transition from Division II to Division I baseball. Under his guidance he has led GCU to a berth in the Division II World Series and a Western Athletic Conference title in 2015 – its first season among the Division I ranks. His coaching resume also includes positions within the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees minor league systems.
Stanford University Associate Head Coach Rusty Filter was named the 18U team pitching coach in 2017 after two stints serving as a coach at the USA Baseball Tournament of Stars. Filter is in his eighth year at Stanford following a span of 21 years with San Diego State University as a student-athlete and coach. During his coaching career, he has tutored notable MLB pitchers such as Stephen Strasburg, Addison Reed and Mark Appel. Thirteen pitchers have been drafted in his first seven years at Stanford, including Cal Quantrill who was selected eighth overall by the San Diego Padres in 2016.
Gregg Ritchie will serve as the hitting coach for the 18U National Team in 2017. Ritchie, who served as a coach at the 17U NTDP and 18U trials in 2016, is in his fifth season as the head coach at George Washington University, where he was named Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year in 2013. He led the Colonials to their first postseason berth since 2006 that season and then to back-to-back postseason appearances in 2015 and 2016. He began his coaching career in the Chicago White Sox organization, where he worked at various levels for 10 years, before serving as the hitting coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2011 and 2012.
Rounding out the coaching staff is TCU’s Bill Mosiello, who will serve as the third base coach and run the offense for the national team. Currently in his fourth season as the Associate Head Coach and Hitting Coach for the Horned Frogs, he holds over 20 years of collegiate coaching experience and seven years experience as a manager in the Minors League. He helped lead TCU to three consecutive College World Series appearances from 2014-2016 and under his guidance has led the Big 12 Conference in batting average for the last two years. Mosiello was the manager for the Arkansas Travelers (formerly the Los Angeles Angels “AA” affiliate) where he coached Mike Trout for nearly two seasons, and was the manager for the Cedar Rapids Kernels (formerly the Los Angeles Angels “A” affiliate) from 2009-2010. He also coached USA Baseball Golden Spikes Award winner Phil Nevins while serving as an assistant coach under legendary coach Augie Garrido at Cal State Fullerton.
The 2017 18U National Team schedule will begin at the Tournament of Stars at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina, from June 27-July 1. The coaching staff will then invite 34 players to join the six previously invited athletes from the 2016 17U NTDP and National Team Identification Series (NTIS) to trials in Minneapolis, Minnesota from August 19-24. The 18U National Team will participate in exhibition games from August 26-29, before traveling to Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada for the WBSC U-18 World Cup on September 1-10.
In addition to being the three-time defending champions at the WBSC U-18 World Cup, the U.S. has won six consecutive gold medals after winning the 2016 COPABE Pan Am “AAA” Championships in Monterrey, Mexico. The USA Baseball 18U National Team has won eight World Cup championships in its history.
