Winona, MN-
Hibbing Community College has announced that former Cardinal assistant coach Bob DeNucci has been elevated to head coach of the HCC squad. Minnesota College Athletic Conference Northern Division Coach-of-the-Year Dave Bevacqua recently announced his retirement from Hibbing, creating the opportunity for DeNucci, who served as both an assistant coach and as the HCC recruiting coordinator over the past four seasons.
DeNucci is a 2001 graduate of Nashwauk-Keewatin High School and competed under Coach Bevacqua in his prep career. Additionally, DeNucci was a member of the 1999 N-K Minnesota State Championship American Legion team and earned All-Tournament Team honors as a part of the 2001 N-K team that went 25-1. A familiar face in the MCAC Baseball ranks, DeNucci played his collegiate baseball for Justin Lamppa at Itasca Community College where ICC finished as Region runner up in both seasons. DeNucci and the Vikings won the 2003 MCAC State Championship; he also played point guard for the Vikings basketball team.
Prior to his role as an assistant at Hibbing, Coach DeNucci coached at the youth, VFW and Legion levels in both the Nashwauk – Keewatin and Greenway communities, as well as serving as a player/coach at the amateur level with the Marble Mallards.
In 2019, Hibbing won the MCAC Northern Division title with a 13-2 league mark; the Cardinals were 19-18 overall and qualified for their second consecutive Region XIII State Tournament. In 2018, HCC earned the at-large bid to the Region XIII post-season. In addition to the two recent tournament appearances, Bevacqua mentored several Cardinals in recent seasons who when on to compete in the four-year college environment, including Joe Lescarbeau (Bemidji State), Joe Kanipes (UW-Superior) and AJ Rouco (Cal State-East Bay).
For the most recent 2019 NJCAA Division III Baseball All-America release, please click here or go to: http://njcaa.org/media/all-americans
Other awards from the MCAC baseball season include:
2019 MCAC Baseball Southern All-Division
2019 MCAC Baseball Northern All-Division
2019 MCAC Baseball Central All-Division
2019 MCAC Baseball All-State Team
2019 MCAC Spring Semester All-Academic
For the complete, 2019 NJCAA Region XIII Division III Baseball All-Region Team, please click here.
For more on the 2019 NJCAA Division III Baseball World Series, go to: http://www.njcaa.org/sports/bsb/2018-19/div3/national_championship/index
About the Minnesota College Athletic Conference
The Minnesota College Athletic Conference is the organizational body for NJCAA-affiliated two-year technical and community college athletic programs in the Minnesota State system. The mission of the Minnesota College Athletic Conference is to advance intercollegiate athletics by providing an engaging and supportive environment for success of our student athletes and competition among member institutions. The MCAC is committed to the guiding principles of encouraging the development and success of student athletes, promoting the integrity, honesty and loyalty to member schools as well as upholding the sustainability of conference athletic programs.