Andy Stankiewicz To Manage 18U National Team

Grand Canyon head coach Andy Stankiewicz will manage USA Baseball’s 18U National Team, the organization said Wednesday.

Stankiewicz, who played seven majors league seasons for four teams, will be assisted by Rusty Filter (Stanford), Bill Mosiello (Texas Christian) and Greg Ritchie (George Washington).

Stankiewicz will guide the Americans at the World Baseball Softball Confederation U-18 World Cup in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada from Sept. 1-10. The 18U national team has won three consecutive World Cups.

“The 18U National Team program has assembled an elite coaching staff for 2017 U-18 World Cup,” Paul Seiler, executive director and CEO of USA Baseball, said in a press release. “This staff has experience coaching at the collegiate, minor league and major league level, and we are confident they will positively influence our athletes developmentally and personally as they compete for a fourth-consecutive World Cup title.”

Stankiewicz is a veteran coach at the national level, having previously coached the 18U squad that won the 2014 COPABE Pan Am Championships in Mexico. He was an assistant for the Collegiate National Team in 2012 and has twice worked with the 17U National Team Development Program. Stankiewicz has shepherded Grand Canyon through its transition from Division II to Division I, culminating in a Western Athletic Conference title in 2015.

Filter will serve at the team’s pitching coach, while Ritchie will be the hitting coach and Mosiello will serve as the third base coach and run the offense. Filter is in his eighth season at Stanford after previously coaching at San Diego State. Ritchie is in his fifth season as George Washington’s head coach. He’s led the Colonials to regional berths in three of the past four seasons. Mosiello is in his fourth season as TCU’s associate head coach and hitting coach. He has more than two decades of college coaching experience and spent another seven years as a minor league manager.

The 2017 18U National Team schedule will begin at the Tournament of Stars at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, N.C, from June 27-July 1. The coaching staff will then invite 34 players to join the six previously invited athletes from the 2016 17U NTDP and National Team Identification Series to trials in Minneapolis from Aug. 19-24. The 18U National Team will participate in exhibition games from Aug. 26-29, before traveling to Ontario for World Cup.