YSU hires Pasquale for baseball

YOUNGSTOWN — Rich Pasquale, an assistant at Slippery Rock, has been named baseball coach at Youngstown State.

Pasquale r eplaces Mike Florak, who resigned in August.

At Slippery Rock, Pasquale served as hitting and fielding coach. The Rock finished 35-17 and had a team batting average of .322. Four players batted over .360 and two players received All-America recognition.

Prior to last season, Pasquale was the head coach at La Roche College in Pittsburgh, a Division III program. He took over a program that had won just 24 games in five seasons, and led the Redhawks to 84 wins in four years and three berths in the conference tournament.

In 2005, La Roche set a school record with 28 wins and was ranked 15th in NCAA Division III in team ERA.

Pasquale has also been an assistant coach at Penn State Beaver and Pittsburgh.

He is a graduate of Francis Marion University in Florence, S.C., and he earned a master’s in health and physical education from Madison University in Mississippi.

Pasquale is the nephew of former Cleveland Indians player Tito Francona and the cousin of Boston Red Sox manager Terry Francona.