After having spent the last 12 seasons on staff as an Assistant Baseball Coach, Justin Scali has been announced as the successor to Jim Peeples as the new Head Baseball Coach at Piedmont College.
The move comes after the announcement made by Peeples that he will serve as the school’s Director of Intercollegiate Athletics after filling both roles for this past academic year.
“It is an honor to be named the head coach of Piedmont College baseball,” said Scali of the move. “I have been so fortunate to have spent the past 12 seasons coaching here as an assistant alongside two great coaches and great men in Coach Peeples and Coach Dombrowsky, and have learned so much from them that I will use going forward. I appreciate the faith shown in me by the administration and am thrilled to accept this opportunity to lead our baseball program into the future.”
Scali is just the fourth different head coach in the last 30 years of the program’s history with Peeples having led the program for the last 15 seasons winning 360 games along the way.
The transition is a unique one as the two coaches not only served on the same coaching staff for more than 500 games together here at Piedmont. They also served as a player-coach combo at Methodist University as well prior to Scali’s graduation as a Division III student-athlete.
“I’m very grateful to be making this announcement regarding our baseball program with Coach Scali becoming our new head coach,” said Peeples. “I’m confident that Coach Scali will serve in his new role with the same work ethic and commitment to excellence that he displayed over the last dozen years on staff. I’m confident that Coach Scali will do a wonderful job and be a positive role model for our young men to look up to.”
During their time as Monarchs, Peeples served then as the Assistant Baseball Coach at Methodist tutoring Scali as the southpaw helped the Monarchs win three conference championships and make three appearances in the NCAA National Tournament.
In Scali’s senior year, the Monarchs went 39-9-1 taking the #1 NCAA Division-III national ranking for eight consecutive weeks at one point during the season. Overall, the Monarchs went 122-52 (.701%) in his playing career as Methodist would later be announced by the NCAA as one of the 30 winningest programs in Division III from the decade of the 2000’s.
Having spent nearly his entire collegiate coaching career at Piedmont, Scali also has experience at another Division III program spending two seasons as an assistant coach at Ohio Northern University. In addition, Scali served two summers as the pitching coach for the Lima Locos, a member of the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate Baseball League.
Both the 2003 and 2004 Locos teams set franchise records for wins, and the 2004 team captured the regular season and tournament championships. During his time with the Locos, Scali mentored a future major leaguer in Craig Stammen who went on to pitch for the Washington Nationals and Cleveland Indians.
With Peeples bringing his former player to Demorest in 2005 as then an assistant coach, Scali has been a part of some of the most successful teams in program history including two seasons over 30 wins with the 2008 team taking 34 victories followed by 2011’s 32. Both teams won the Great South Athletic Conference tournament, earned a spot in the national poll, and saw an appearance in the NCAA National Tournament come to fruition, the first two such trips in program history.
Spending his time primarily with the team’s pitching staff, Scali has helped develop an ABCA and D3baseball.com All-American with four pitchers named conference Pitchers of the Year. In addition, 11 have been tabbed ABCA All-South Region, 17 All-Conference, and seven GSAC All-Freshman selections.
His hurlers have also received national recognition with two pitchers establishing new NCAA Division III single season appearance records in 2008 and again in 2011. In 2013, Scali helped pitcher Kevin Caldwell earn the program’s first-ever Rawlings Gold Glove award.
Scali takes over the program this month with Jim Peeples stepping off the diamond after 15 years as the leader of the Green and Gold.
A 2002 graduate of Methodist University (NC), Scali earned his bachelor’s degree in Sports Management before later receiving his Master of Business Administration from Piedmont in 2005.
Scali resides in Flowery Branch, GA with his wife and PC alum, the former Katie Wood (’06, M’07). The two welcomed their first child, Eva Anne, to the family on April 8, 2010.
