COUGAR BASEBALL

Head Coach Chris Reardon
Queens College ‘98
Eighth season

Chris Reardon begins his eighth year as head coach at Caldwell College having transformed Cougar baseball into one of the top programs in the Northeast Region. Reardon’s seven-year record at Caldwell is 142-131, and includes Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference regular-season titles in 2003 and 2007 and a CACC Tournament crown in 2004. Additionally, Reardon's teams in 2004 and 2007 qualified for the NCAA Division II Northeast Region Tournament.

Last season Reardon guided the Cougars to a 25-15 record and their second NCAA Regional appearance in four years. He also received CACC Coach of the Year honors for the second time, as the Cougars captured the conference's regular-season crown with an 11-5 record.

During Reardon’s tenure at Caldwell College, the Cougars have played in the championship game of the CACC Tournament four times. In just his second season, Reardon had his team contending for the conference title by finishing second in the regular season with a 10-6 CACC record and in the tournament, losing to Dominican in the final. In 2003, Reardon was named the CACC Coach of the Year after leading the Cougars to their first regular-season conference title, while guiding the pitching staff to a national ranking of 13th in earned-run average.

The 2004 squad set the school record for most wins in a season (28) en route to a CACC Tournament championship, a trip to the Northeast Regional Tournament and a No. 2 Northeast Region final ranking. In 2005 the Cougars finished third in the conference with an overall record of 22-20, giving Reardon his fourth straight winning season. That year, outfielder Hasani Whitfield was named the CACC Player of the Year.

During the last four seasons Reardon has produced three first team All-Region players and nine first team All-CACC performers, including current Cougars Robert Casal, Chris Chiarappa, Tommy Murphy and Adric Saxon. Saxon became the first Cougar to lead the nation in a statistical category after averaging 1.55 runs batted in per game in 2007.

Reardon began his collegiate coaching career at Nassau Community College in 1998, and also served as an assistant coach at St. John’s University in 1999.

Reardon, from Jackson Heights in Queens, N.Y., is a 1998 graduate of Queens College where he played baseball and received a Bachelor’s degree in history. Along with his duties as head baseball coach, Reardon is an instructor at the Fred Hill Sports Academy in Verona, N.J. He currently resides in Caldwell, N.J.

Assistant Coach Jay Messina
Fairleigh Dickinson Univ. '77
Fifth season

Jay Messina is in his fifth season as an assistant coach at Caldwell College. Messina joined the Cougars in 2004 after serving as head baseball coach at Essex Catholic High School for seven years until the school closed in 2003. He also has been involved in coaching Little League and American Legion baseball for 22 years.

Messina graduated from Fairleigh Dickinson University in 1977 with a degree in accounting. In addition to his coaching responsibilities with the Cougars, Messina works as a certified public accountant in Bloomfield, N.J. He currently lives in Belleville, N.J.

Assistant Coach Adam Taraska
University of Bridgeport ‘04
First season

Adam Taraska joins the Cougars’ coaching staff this year and will work with the infielders. Taraska has been a head coach with the Team Connecticut Blue Jays AAU program for six years. His 18-and-under team won the Silver Championship at the Fletcher World Series last summer in St. Petersburg, Fla. They also captured the gold medal at the 2007 Nutmeg State Games. This winter, Taraska has been teaching baseball skills at the Fred Hill Sports Academy in Verona, N.J.

Taraska played baseball at the University of Bridgeport, where he was a starting infielder and team captain. He helped the Purple Knights set the school for wins in a season as a sophomore and also earned the team’s Coach’s Award as a senior. Taraska graduated in 2004 with a Bachelor’s degree in Human Services.

A native of Willston Park, N.Y., Taraska attended Herricks High School in New Hyde Park, N.Y. He currently lives in Bridgeport, Conn.