Eric Smith will join La Salle Baseball for his first year in the dugout.
Smith, a former standout for the Mount St. Mary's baseball team, just completed three seasons as an assistant coach with the Mountaineers. For two seasons, he was the Mount's recruiting coordinator, in charge of infield play, and assisted with the hitters.
As a coach at the Mount, Smith coached two First Team All-NEC players, six Second Team All-NEC players, one NEC Player of the Year (Shane Eyler) and one NEC Tournament MVP (Josh Vittek). Vittek and Eyler both were named Ping! Baseball All-Americans. In addition, four of his former Mount St. Mary's University players signed professional contracts.
Other than on-field duties, Smith's responsibilities included fundraising for the program, as well as monitoring the academic progress of the team. The 2010 squad was recognized as having the highest GPA in the conference for the second year in a row, as well as finishing in the top 10% in the country for student-athlete GPA. In 2010, 10 players were named to the NEC Academic Honor Roll (at least a 3.2 GPA), four players were named to the Commissioners Cup Academic Honor Roll (at least a 3.75 GPA). In 2009, the Mount had 11 players named to the Honor Roll, five players named to the Academic Honor Roll, and Kyle Kane was named to ESPN The Magazine District II All-Academic first team with a 3.78 GPA.
During the 2008 season, The Mount captured its first ever Northeast Conference Title and advanced to the Cary Regional along with UNC, Elon and UNC Wilmington. In the summer of 2008, Smith was the head coach of the McLean Raiders of the Clark Griffith League and led them to a second-place finish in the prestigious Johnstown tournament. Smith has seen seven of his former summer ball players sign professional contracts including 2010 2nd round pick Dan Tillman (LA Angels), 2009 3rd round pick Robbie Shields (NY Mets) and 2010 11th round pick Wade Kirkland (Athletics).
Smith was a three-time Second Team All-NEC player in his four seasons at the school. In his playing career, he finished in the in the top 10 in 12 offensive categories, which includes ranking first in career hits, runs, total bases, RBI, and hit by pitch.
