Jerry Zulli enters his fourth season at South Alabama as hitting coach and recruiting coordinator in 2015.
As recruiting coordinator, Zulli has helped South Alabama land consecutive Collegiate Baseball top-50 recruiting classes the past three years, with the 2013 signing class ranked 29th in the nation by Collegiate Baseball Newspaper.
In 2013, under Zulli’s guidance, Jordan Patterson was named the Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and first-team all-Sun Belt Conference as a utility player. Robby Campbell (2B) and Dustin Dalken (DH) were also named first-team all-SBC while Whitt Dorsey (C) and Nolan Earley earned second-team all-conference honors.
The Jaguars ranked second in the SBC in batting average (.300), hits (661) and on-base percentage (.390), and third in runs scored (426), RBI (388) and walks (258). In Sun Belt contests, USA led the league in triples (11), and ranked second in batting average (.312), slugging percentage (.452), on-base percentage (.395), runs scored (209), hits (337), RBI (195) and total bases (488).
At the NCAA Starkville Regional, Nick Zaharion earned all-tournament honors after hitting .375 with three RBI, two runs scored and two walks in three games.
In 2012, two Jaguar hitters – Whitt Dorsey (1st team) and Jordan Patterson (2nd team) – earned all-Sun Belt Conference honors after batting .337 and .323, respectively.
South Alabama led the SBC in batting average (.306), slugging percentage (.452), on-base percentage (.389), runs scored (205), RBI (184), total bases (474), and tied for most hits (321) in league contests in 2012.
Last season, Cole Gleason earned second-team all-SBC honors after leading the team in 10 offensive categories. Gleason hit .381 with seven doubles, three homers, 29 RBI and 15 runs scored while posting a .976 OPS including a .454 on-base percentage in 28 Sun Belt contests.
Zulli came to USA from Memphis where he helped the Tigers lead Conference USA in hitting in 2011 with a .309 team batting average, while also leading the league in on-base percentage (.394). The Tigers ranked in the top five in nearly every offensive statistical category, and finished second in doubles (117) and third in slugging percentage (.430) and sacrifice flies (35). Memphis ranked fourth in C-USA in runs scored (365), RBI (329), total bases (841) and tied for fourth in hits (604).
Shortstop Chad Zurcher was named the 2011 C-USA Player of the Year, and earned third-team All-American honors from several organizations, including the American Baseball Coaches Association and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. Zurcher led the nation in batting average (.443) and on-base percentage (.547).
In his seven seasons at Memphis, Zulli coached eight all-conference student-athletes who were honored 10 times. He helped lead the Tigers to 36 wins and an NCAA Regional appearance in 2007. In 2011, five Memphis student-athletes were taken in the MLB draft. In his seven seasons at Memphis, Zulli coached 12 student-athletes who were selected in the draft.
Prior to joining the Memphis staff, Zulli served as an assistant coach at Middle Georgia College from 2002-04 where he helped the Warriors to a 130-51 record in three seasons and a 2004 JUCO World Series appearance.
Zulli, a New Orleans, La., native, lettered two seasons at MGC where he earned the Terry Daniels Award and helped lead the Warriors to the Region XVII Championship in 1999. Following his two years at MGC, Zulli returned to his hometown where he lettered for two seasons at New Orleans before receiving his bachelor’s degree in sports management in 2002. He is married to the former Kristen Bell of Lawrenceville, Ga. The couple resides in Mobile with their daughter Zoe Madelyn.
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