April 29, 2021

Former UNH Pitching Great Dave Wallace Named Team USA Pitching Coach; Team USA Hopeful of Summer Olympic Berth

West Haven, CT - The University of New Haven and its baseball program may have a connection to the 2021 Summer Olympics in Japan.

Former Charger pitching legend Dave Wallace was recently named as the pitching coach for Team USA, which is being managed by former Los Angeles of Anaheim Angel manager Mike Scoscia.

Scoscia and Wallace will lead Team USA in a qualifying event May 31 through June 5 in Florida. Team USA will compete against national teams from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and Nicaragua with a berth in the Olympics going to the winner.

Wallace is a Charger legend and 2000 Hall of Fame inductee. A Waterbury native, Wallace won 24 games over his four-year UNH career. He recorded 311 strikeouts in 52 collegiate appearances between 1966-1969. His 311 punchouts places him second all-time in school history, and he pitched to a 2.18 ERA in the Blue and Gold. He would go on to play professional baseball and made 13 appearances for the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1973-74 season as a part of a 12-year playing career.

Wallace, who has also served as pitching coach or consultant for five teams over a long career in professional baseball, will coach Team USA in a eight-team qualifying tournament, broken into two pools of four teams. The other four-team pool consists of national teams from Canada, Colombia, Cuba and Venezuela. Two teams will emerge from each pool and compete for the one Olympic qualifying spot designated from this event. 

The teams who finish second and third in this qualifier still have a chance to represent their country in the Olympics. Those two teams will advance to a final qualifying tournament in Taiwan in June. Australia, China, Netherlands, and Taiwan have already qualified for that event.

The Japan Olympics will take place July 28 to Aug. 7 in Fukushima and Yokohama, Japan.