STANDISH, ME – Will Sanborn '86 tallied the 600th win of his career as the Head Coach of the Saint Joseph's College baseball program when his Monks topped Bates College, 8-7, in a non-conference contest in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday.
Coach Sanborn, now in his 22nd season as the Monks' skipper, is the winningest head coach in SJC Athletics history and the first-ever to reach the 600-victory plateau. Now 601-322-5 (.651) over the course of his career, Sanborn is just the 44th individual to accumulate 600 or more wins in the history of the NCAA DIII Baseball.
He is the eighth New England coach to reach the milestone and joins Ed Flaherty (Southern Maine, 873-391), Pete Varney (Brandeis, 692-506) and John Casey (Tufts, 605-363) among active skippers in the region who have surpassed the 600-victory mark. Sanborn owns the third-highest winning percentage among the eight New England coaching legends and is one of just two to have coached for less than 30 seasons. Coach Flaherty, in his 29th year at USM, is the other.
Sanborn has guided the Monks to nine conference titles in the last 10 seasons, including six Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) titles – along with an 82-20 (.804) record in GNAC play - in seven years as a member of the league. Saint Joseph's clinched the program's fifth-consecutive conference title with a 2-0 victory over top-seeded Suffolk University on Sunday, April 27th and earned a berth into the NCAA Tournament for the eighth time in the last nine seasons with the title clinching triumph.
Overall, Coach Sanborn has led St. Joe's to 18 championships, including 13 conference crowns and five NAIA New England titles, and 19 winning seasons. Saint Joseph's has reached the 25-victory plateau in 15 of Sanborn's 22 years and posted 30 or more wins on 10 occasions.
The Monks have enjoyed unprecedented success under Sanborn's watch over the last 10 seasons, posting a 320-125 (.719) record since the start of the 2005 campaign. Only one New England program (Wheaton) has a better winning percentage and just three (Wheaton, Eastern Conn. and Western New England) have tallied more victories during this span.
| NCAA DIII BASEBALL 600 VICTORY CLUB (totals current as of 5/9/2014) | ||||||||
| NAME | YRS | W | L | T | W% | AVG WINS | TEAM(S) | |
| 1 | Gordie Gillespie | 59 | 1893 | 952 | 1 | .665 | 32.1 | Lewis, St. Francis, Ripon |
| 2 | Don Schaly | 40 | 1438 | 329 | 13 | .814 | 36.0 | Marietta |
| 3 | Bill Holowaty | 45 | 1412 | 528 | 7 | .728 | 31.4 | Eastern Conn. |
| 4 | Mike Fox* | 30 | 1233 | 415 | 5 | .748 | 41.1 | NC Wesleyan, UNC |
| 5 | Jim Mallon | 34 | 1196 | 602 | 1 | .665 | 35.2 | Southwestern (TX) |
| 6 | Don Brandon | 39 | 1110 | 588 | 5 | .654 | 28.5 | Anderson (IN) |
| 7 | George Valesente # | 42 | 1067 | 475 | 8 | .692 | 25.4 | New Paltz, SUNY-Maritime, Ithaca College |
| 8 | Tim Petteroni # | 33 | 1064 | 401 | 6 | .726 | 32.2 | College of Wooster |
| 9 | Tom Austin # | 35 | 1049 | 473 | 10 | .689 | 30.0 | Methodist |
| 10 | Bob Babb # | 35 | 1012 | 370 | 12 | .732 | 28.9 | Johns Hopkins |
| 11 | John Ostrowski # | 42 | 971 | 763 | 16 | .560 | 23.1 | Benedictine |
| 12 | Ed Flaherty # | 29 | 873 | 391 | 4 | .691 | 30.1 | Southern Maine |
| 13 | Jeff Albies | 33 | 860 | 401 | 15 | .682 | 26.1 | William Paterson |
| 14 | Augie Schmidt # | 27 | 818 | 363 | 5 | .693 | 30.3 | Carthage |
| 15 | Bill Thurston | 44 | 811 | 471 | 12 | .633 | 18.4 | Amherst |
| 16 | Dick Naylor | 36 | 791 | 576 | 2 | .579 | 22.0 | Hanover |
| 17 | Karl Steffen # | 30 | 770 | 384 | 3 | .667 | 25.7 | Rensselaer |
| 18 | Bruce Wheeler | 33 | 756 | 529 | 4 | .588 | 22.9 | UMass.-Dartmouth |
| 19 | Norm Schoenig # | 27 | 746 | 427 | 13 | .636 | 27.6 | Montclair State |
| 20 | Yogi Lutz # | 28 | 746 | 338 | 6 | .688 | 26.6 | Alvernia |
| 21 | Rick Ferchen # | 31 | 737 | 510 | 17 | .591 | 23.8 | Valparaiso, Bobart, Oneonta, Keuka |
| 22 | Tom Lechnir | 25 | 728 | 292 | 1 | .714 | 29.1 | Wisc.-Oshkosh |
| 23 | Bucky Burgau # | 40 | 711 | 619 | 6 | .535 | 17.8 | Concordia (MN) |
| 24 | Dennis Martel # | 27 | 709 | 434 | 3 | .620 | 26.3 | Illinois-Wesleyan |
| 25 | Rick Dell | 26 | 707 | 331 | 10 | .681 | 27.2 | TCNJ |
| 26 | Bob Fisher | 42 | 700 | 641 | 14 | .522 | 16.7 | Baldwin Wallace |
| 27 | Curt Kendall # | 29 | 693 | 425 | 8 | .620 | 23.9 | Bridgewater (VA) |
| 28 | Pete Varney # | 33 | 692 | 506 | 6 | .578 | 21.0 | Brandeis |
| 29 | Rick Heller* | 26 | 690 | 565 | 4 | .550 | 26.5 | Upper Iowa, UNI, Indiana St. |
| 30 | Joel Holst # | 24 | 674 | 359 | 4 | .652 | 28.1 | Loras, Wartburg |
| 31 | Ken Perrone | 30 | 674 | 397 | 5 | .629 | 22.5 | Salem State |
| 32 | Jim Page # | 26 | 671 | 388 | 3 | .634 | 25.8 | Millsaps |
| 33 | Jeff Jenkins # | 28 | 671 | 447 | 2 | .600 | 24.0 | Heidleberg, Bethany, Rose-Hulman |
| 34 | Roger Ingles | 22 | 644 | 322 | 8 | .667 | 29.3 | Ohio Wesleyan |
| 35 | Jerry Haugen # | 37 | 636 | 592 | 5 | .518 | 17.2 | Saint John's (MN) |
| 36 | Herb Strayer | 31 | 628 | 424 | 9 | .597 | 20.3 | Ohio Northern |
| 37 | Tim Neiman | 25 | 626 | 348 | 5 | .643 | 25.0 | DeSales |
| 38 | Jim Bowen | 25 | 624 | 595 | 8 | .512 | 25.0 | Cal. St. Stanislaus |
| 39 | Abe Naff | 22 | 612 | 224 | 3 | .732 | 27.8 | Ferrum |
| 40 | Nick Boothe # | 28 | 610 | 459 | 6 | .571 | 21.8 | Virginia-Wesleyan |
| 41 | Owen Wright | 36 | 607 | 460 | 2 | .569 | 16.9 | Elizabethtown, LaVerne |
| 42 | John Casey # | 31 | 605 | 363 | 4 | .625 | 19.5 | Tufts |
| 43 | Will Sanborn # | 22 | 601 | 322 | 5 | .651 | 27.3 | Saint Joseph's |
| 44 | Bob Wells | 29 | 600 | 327 | 4 | .647 | 20.7 | Frostburg State |
# = Indicates active coach * = Current Division I coach
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Saint Joseph's College is Maine's only Catholic liberal arts college, providing a supportive, personalized and career-focused education for more than 100 years. From its 430-acre campus on the shores of Sebago Lake, the College offers more than 40 undergraduate programs to a population of approximately 1,000 students. Saint Joseph's College Online provides certificates, undergraduate and advanced degrees for working adults through an online learning program. For more, visit www.sjcme.edu.
