Great Neck, N.Y. - Longtime Adelphi University baseball coach Dom Scala was honored by the New York Professional Baseball Hot Stove League on Friday, Jan. 26 at Leonard's of Great Neck.
Scala was the recipient of this year's Ralph DiLullo Memorial Award, presented annually to a college coach in recognition of his service to the game of baseball at the collegiate level.
Ralph DiLullo's career in baseball spanned six decades, spending 25 years with the Chicago Cubs before joining the Major League Scouting Bureau for nearly 20 years. The longtime scout was hailed as an ambassador of the game in the Northeast, is a member of the Professional Baseball Scout's Wall of Fame, and was lauded as "baseball's premier scout" by Grahame Jones of the Los Angeles Times upon his death in 1999.
Scala has been the head coach at Adelphi since 2004, posting a career record of 363-292-3. Leading the team to a Northeast-10 Championship in 2011. Scala's Panthers have advanced to postseason play in 12 of his 14 seasons at the helm. Scala was named the 2011 NE10 Coach of the Year, and was also the 2005 and 2007 New York Collegiate Athletic Conference (NYCAC) Coach of the Year.
The award is not Scala's first for achievement in baseball: he was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Greater New York Sandlot Athletic Alliance, an organization with promotes youth baseball in the New York City area, in 2016.
Scala said: "To be recognized by the Professional Scouts Association is a tremendous honor. To be receiving the Ralph DiLullo Award is special to me because Ralph was a legend and signed me to my first professional contract with the Oakland A's."
The New York Professional Baseball Hot Stove League, now in its 53rd year, is comprised of professional baseball scouts in and around the nearby New York Metropolitan area. The organization presents numerous awards to individuals annually, including scouts, coaches and communications professionals, along with other various individuals involved in the game of baseball.
About Adelphi Athletics
Adelphi University joined the Northeast-10 Conference in the fall of 2009, and in the past eight seasons, has collected 25 regular season conference titles, 26 tournament championships, 33 individual crowns and captured the Northeast-10 Presidents' Cup four times (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2017), while winning six NCAA Division II National Championships.
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