2010 Baseball Coaches
 
RichBenjamin
Head Coach
Rich Benjamin Image
847.628.1579
   
Coaching Honors
NCCAA Regional Coach of the Year (2008)
NAIA Region VII Tournament (2008)
CCAC Tournament Championship (2008)
Program best 30 wins (2009)
Program best 20 CCAC wins (2009)
Program best 9-game winning streak (2008)

 
In two years on the campus of Judson University, Rich Benjamin has redefined what it means to be a Judson baseball player. Entering his third year at Judson, he has won 48 games and changed the academic setting of the team.  With the 48 wins, he is currently third all-time in wins at Judson and needs just five wins to move into second place.
 
His first two seasons have generated a buzz in the area for Judson baseball. In his first season (2008), Judson won their first-ever CCAC Tournament and made their first appearance in the NAIA Regional Tournament. He topped those statistics in 2009 as his team won a program best 30 games and finished third in the CCAC.
 
In only his second season as a head coach, Benjamin won a program best 20 CCAC games and 30 overall games, broke nine Judson records, and finished third in the CCAC. Judson also went on a run in April (April 4-22) where they won 13 out of 15 games played. He had three players named All-CCAC with one earning a gold glove award. Judson won at least one game in every series and took three games from Trinity Christian, Trinity International, and Robert Morris.
 
The 2008 season brought lots of excitement to the program. After starting off 1-13, Judson won nine straight games to tie the school record, defeated two nationally ranked programs, and won a game over St. Xavier University for the first time in program history. They then claimed the CCAC Tournament Championship, received an at-large bid to the NAIA Region VII Tournament, and finished with a #5 ranking in the NAIA Region VII poll. Freshman Oscar DePablos, who broke the single game record for hits in a game, who was named the CCAC Freshman of the Year andBenjamin was named the NCCAA North Central Region Coach of the Year.
 
Judson's Director of Athletics Nancy Binger said, "We are very pleased to add Rich to our staff. He is coming from a solid CCAC program and it will be beneficial that he knows the conference and the level of play. I expect that he will continue to move the baseball program in the right direction. He is definitely ready to be a head coach at this level and I am glad he is getting his chance at Judson."
 
Benjamin is not unfamiliar with the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference as he was an assistant coach at Olivet Nazarene University for three seasons. In those three seasons, ONU went 93-49-1 and had a 44-16 record in the CCAC. At ONU, he was a part of the 2005 CCAC regular season championship team that went 17-3 and had an overall record of 40-12. They also finished as the NAIA Region VII runners-up. In all three seasons at ONU, the Tigers won more than 25 games each year and had 10 or more wins in the CCAC.
 

Benjamin says, "I am honored to be named the head baseball coach at Judson. I have been praying for a place to go too to become a head coach. I am looking forward to moving the Judson baseball program to the next level. Judson is a great place to coach and everybody has been friendly to me from the beginning of the interview process."

As the pitching coach at ONU, he helped mold a pitching staff that was one of the best in the CCAC and the nation. In 2005, the ONU pitching staff had a 3.00 ERA and three to one strikeout to walk ratio. In 2006, his pitchers recorded three shutouts and in 2007 they had a 4.71 ERA. In the 2005 season, three pitchers had undefeated records with one at a 9-0 record. He also had the chance to coach under one of the winningest NAIA baseball coaches in Elliot Johnson. Johnson won his 800th career game in the 2007 season at Olivet.

Prior to Olivet, Benjamin was a student assistant coach at Martin Methodist University in Tennessee. In the 2003 season he helped guide the Hawks to a 37-12 record and to the Trans South and NAIA Region XI championship games. A MMC, he was the hitting, catching and outfielder coach.

Building his coaching skills at camps, Benjamin has worked at several baseball camps. He has been a camp coach at two NCAA Division I programs in Vanderbilt University and the University of Notre Dame. He has also coached at Camp Winadu in Massachusetts as the assistant director of baseball operations.

In two different summers, he has coached in the M.I.N.K. Collegiate Summer Baseball League and the Sandlot Collegiate Summer League. In 2007, he was a part of the M.I.N.K. which is affiliated with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He coached the FCA Grays in Kansas City, Mo., as they won 21 games and was the most wins in team history. The 2005 summer took him to Nashville, Tenn., where he was the pitching coach for the Twitty City Stars.

Benjamin started his collegiate career as a player at Milligan College for two years and then finished his final two years at Martin Methodist. He graduated from Martin Methodist in 2004 with a degree in English. In 2008, he earned his Master's of Organizational Leadership at Olivet Nazarene University. He is married to his high school sweetheart, Casey.


 
MarcoFajardo
Assistant Coach
Marco Fajardo Image

Assistant coach Marco Fajardo enters his fourth season with the Judson coaching staff. Fajardo has been coaching both locally and nationally for the past 15 years. He has also owned his own baseball academy. In the fall of 2000 he combined forces with The Chicago White Sox Training Center and since then has been a hitting coach for the organization. He also served as an assistant coach for Guerin Prep High School for two seasons before coming over to Judson. Fajardo also founded, manages and coaches The Chicago Zephyrs, a collegiate summer baseball team.

Coach Fajardo is a graduate of Boston University and Northwestern University. He played four seasons with The Cincinnati Reds Organization. After his professional baseball career he began another professional career as a general dentist practicing in Warrenville, Illinois. Fajardo is a private instructor and consultant to numerous high school, college, professional teams and players. He resides in Naperville, Illinois.


 
ReidHamblet
Assistant Coach
 
Reid Hamblet is in his second year as an assistant coach at Judson University and comes to Judson after playing three years in the minor league system. Hamblet was drafted in the fifth round of the 2005 Major League Baseball Draft by the Baltimore Orioles as a pitcher.
 

Hamblet, from Olympia, Washington, played for the Aberdeen Ironbirds and the Delmarva Shorebirds in Single A. In his minor league career, he won 13 games as pitcher. Last season, he went 9-3 for Delmarva with 67 strikeouts in 30 appearances. In 2006, with Delmarva, he recorded 91 strikeouts in 135 innings pitched.

The standout pitcher from Biola University was a NAIA All-American in the 2005 season while also being named as the NAIA Champions of Character award winner for Biola. In that same season, the GSAC (Golden State Athletic Conference) named him the Pitcher of the Year, was on the All-GSAC team and picked up the GSAC and NAIA Regional Pitcher of the Week once. He won eight games and recorded a 2.92 ERA. Another highlight of his collegiate career came in his freshman season of 2003 when Biola participated in the NAIA World Series.   In three years with Biola, he won 22 games.

In the summer of 2004, Hamblet had a chance to pitch in the Alaskan Summer League for the Alaska Goldpanners. He pitched in eight games while starting seven and led the team with 55 strikeouts.

Hamblet has been married to his wife Samantha for two years and they reside in Chicago with their baby daughter, Lowcy..
 

Aberdeen Ironbirds (2006)

Alaska Golddigers (2004)


 
BretEhrlich
Student Assistant

 
TimVictor
Student Assistant