Hawaii baseball coach Mike Trapasso confirmed Monday that he has promoted Carl Fraticelli to a full-time assistant with the Rainbow Warriors.
Fraticelli, who worked as a volunteer coach under Trapasso since 2010, joins Rusty McNamara as Trapasso’s two full-time assistants.
Fraticelli will be the lead hitting coach, with McNamara, who held those duties the past three years, assisting him.
The move comes less than two months after pitching coach Chad Konishi was let go after 12 years on the staff.
Trapasso decided to go with two hitting coaches as his assistants to help an offense that finished in the bottom 15 in the country last year in batting average, runs, home runs and stolen bases."We had over 200 applicants for the position and I really took my time, talked to several people, but really kept coming back to Carl and the fact that he has tremendous experience," Trapasso said. "Carl is a grinder and, as an assistant coach in college baseball, you have to have that grinder mentality and he definitely has that."
Fraticelli was a two-time All-West Coast Conference honoree at Loyola Marymount, where he went to a College World Series in 1986. He played three years in the California League in the Minnesota Twins’ farm system after he was selected in the 18th round of the 1988 MLB draft.
He worked as a head coach at Waimea High, Diablo Valley College and Los Medanos College before joining Trapasso’s staff in 2010.
"Carl’s resume speaks for itself," Trapasso said. "He’s got tremendous knowledge and experience in a lot of different areas.
"He’s had head coaching jobs at two different colleges on the mainland, which has him connected for recruiting purposes. He’s been a head scout, which shows his ability to scout talent. And he’s been a successful high school baseball coach."
UH will now have to fill an open volunteer position.
