Justin Blood enters his second season as the head coach of the Hartford Hawks, his first head coaching position. Blood comes to Hartford by way of the University of Connecticut where he served six seasons as the Huskies’ pitching coach and recruiting coordinator.
In his first season at Hartford, Blood led the Hawks to a 16-40 overall record and a 7-17 mark in conference play. Hartford’s 16 victories in 2012 is the most since the 2008 season, while the seven league victories is the most since 2009. Under his tutelage a pair of Hawks earned America East honors with senior Simon Kudernatsch named to the America East Second Team All-Conference and freshman Sean Newcomb named to the All-Rookie squad. Kudernatsch joined sophomore Brian Hunter in earning All-Academic Team honors, while the senior shortstop was also named an Academic All-American by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
Blood’s stint at Hartford comes after helping lead Connecticut its most successful season in program history, which included a BIG EAST regular season championship and the first trip to the NCAA Super Regional’s. UConn ended the 2011 season with a 45-20-1 overall record and a 22-5 mark in BIG EAST play.
Last year, Blood’s pitching staff finished the season with an ERA of 3.14, the 23rd best in the nation in Division I. The Huskies were also eighth in the nation in hits allowed per nine innings (7.58). Blood coached right handed hurler Matt Barnes to BIG EAST Player of the Year accolades and First Team All-America honors from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Barnes was the third player in UConn history to be selected in the first round of the MLB Amateur Draft as he was taken 19th overall by the Boston Red Sox.
In 2010, Blood helped the Huskies to one of their most successful seasons to that point as the UConn ballclub broke into the national rankings for the first time since the 1979 season. The Huskies finished that season with a program-record 48 wins. His pitching staff finished the year with the 17th best ERA in the nation at 3.91. The Huskies also struck out 397 batters, the second-best tally in program history, falling short of Blood’s 2009 staff, which struck out a school record 455 batters.
In his six overall seasons with Connecticut, Blood had 14 different pitchers drafted in the Major League Baseball draft, including five from the 2011 squad.
A pitcher himself, Blood was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in 2001 and excelled in the minor leagues before retiring to pursue coaching on the collegiate level. Upon his retirement, Blood had accumulated a 3.97 ERA in 82 games as a minor league player with a 7-4 record. He helped to lead the Inland Empire 66ers to the California League Class A title in 2003, posting a 5-2 record with two saves and a 3.07 ERA with 77 strikeouts and just 27 walks in 58.2 innings out of the bullpen.
The New Hampshire native joined the coaching staff at Quinnipiac University in 2003, serving as a volunteer coach, then in 2004 he returned to his alma mater, Franklin Pierce University, to complete his degree and work as the baseball team’s student assistant.
Blood played three years for Franklin Pierce before being drafted. He ranks among ca¬reer leaders at the college with 235 strikeouts (second), 12 wins (fourth) and a 4.62 ERA (seventh) in 204.2 innings (fourth) over 38 appearances (third) with 12 complete games (fourth). In 2001, he struck out a program-record 20 New Hampshire College batters, which still ranks fifth in NCAA Division II single-game history.
Blood and his wife, Hannah, currently reside in Vernon, Conn., with their two children, a son, Jackson Everett, four-and-a-half years old, and daughter Harper McKenna, three-and-a-half years old
