Coach Phil Cundari has a distinguished career helping athletes and athletic programs achieve excellence.
A native of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, Phil Cundari recently completed two years as the Rutgers University baseball pitching coach. The 2011 National Pitching Coach of the Year spent the previous 17 seasons on the staff at Seton Hall. He earned a master’s degree from Rutgers in 1990.
Leading the Rutgers University pitchers, Cundari helped the staff lower its ERA to 4.82, down from 6.11 the year before. The Scarlet Knights held opponents to two or less runs in a game 10 times, which was achieved just two times prior. That helped spark the team to a stretch of winning seven-of-eight weekends and to as high as seven games over .500 for the first time since 2012. Friday starter John O’Reilly signed a contract with the Pittsburgh Pirates following the season.
Cundari guided the Seton Hall pitching staff to either first or second in the Big East in ERA in six of his last seven seasons in South Orange, with a 2.68 mark in 2011 to rank No. 8 nationally. That team won the Big East title and made an NCAA Regional appearance that season with 426 strikeouts, a .240 batting average against and only 7.95 hits allowed per nine innings (No. 19 nationally) on the mound. Cundari was awarded National Pitching Coach of the Year by Collegiate Baseball and promoted to associate head coach following the campaign.
Cundari oversaw a Pirates staff that hurled seven shutouts in 2017, including a no-hitter, after having five blankings in the previous season with a perfect game. Seton Hall pitchers held opponents to a .238 and .228 average in his last two seasons (2016-17) with a combined 909 strikeouts. In addition, Cundari had 14 protégés named All-Big East since 2011 with six earning first-team status and Josh Prevost claiming Big East Pitcher of the Year and All-America honors in 2014. Joe DiRocco also collected All-America standing in 2011.
Cundari had three pitchers selected in the 2017 MLB Draft and a fourth signed as a free agent. Overall, 28 hurlers were selected or signed by major league organizations during his time with Seton Hall.
A standout pitcher at Seton Hall during his playing days, Cundari ranks second in program history in career wins (26), fifth in games started (36) and seventh in strikeouts (217) while playing just three seasons. He capped off his career in fine fashion, garnering Big East Pitcher of the Year and Second Team All-America honors in 1985 after winning 12 games, striking out 98 and posting a 1.74 earned run average. Cundari's 1.22 ERA in Big East games still stands as a conference record. He was inducted into Seton Hall's Hall of Fame in February 2010.
Cundari was drafted in the fourth round by the Oakland Athletics in 1985 and pitched four seasons in the organization, reaching as high as the AA level in 1987 before his career was cut short by an arm injury.
Off the baseball field, Cundari is frequently booked as a sports performance consultant. A licensed psychotherapist, he specializes in peak performance and mental toughness training for athletes of all levels.
Cundari earned his bachelor's of social work from Seton Hall in 1989 and completed his master's degree in psychiatric social work from Rutgers in 1990.
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