FLUSHING, N.Y. – On Friday, Jan. 24^th Queens College baseball head coach Chris Reardon '98 was honored by the New York Professional Baseball Hot Stove League as a recipient of the Ralph DiLullo Memorial Award.
 
The Ralph DiLullo Award is presented annually to a college coach in recognition of their service to the game of college baseball. Ralph DiLullo spent more than 60 years in baseball as a player, manager, and scout, and was seen as one of the premier figures of baseball in the northeast, being called "baseball's premier scout" by the Los Angeles Times.
 
"It is an incredible honor to receive the Ralph DiLullo Award. This recognition motivates me to keep pushing forward and striving to make the same lasting impact that Ralph DiLullo did," said Reardon. "To be recognized by the New York Professional Baseball Hot Stove League with an award in his name is not only a personal privilege but also a great distinction for Queens baseball."
 
In a coaching career that has spanned over two decades, Reardon enters his 12^th season in charge of the Queens program having compiled 212 wins which is the most in the DII era of the Queens program and ranks second in the Record book. Overall he enters the 2025 season 12 wins short of compiling 400 total career wins and 27 wins short of becoming the All-Time wins leader in Queens' history.
 
The coaching career would begin as an assistant coach at St. John's University which eventually led to a successful head coaching stretch at DII Caldwell University that saw Reardon lead the Cougars to multiple CACC Championships and NCAA East Regional appearances over eight seasons.
 
The success at Caldwell would land Reardon the head pitching coach job at DI New Jersey Institute of Technology before he returned home to Flushing where he was named head coach at his alma mater in 2014.
 
Since taking charge of the program, Reardon has turned the Knights program into one of the top programs in the East which includes the program being ranked Top 10 in the NCBWA in the past five seasons. He has led the program to its second East Coast Conference championship title in program history in 2023 and the first since his playing days as a Knight.
 
Overall he has guided numerous student-athletes to top honors such as ECC Player of the Year, two ECC Rookie of the Year, 36 All-ECC honors, 10 All-Region honors, and two All-Americans and earned individual honors when he was ECC Coach of the Year in 2022 by his peers.
 
In 2016 Reardon and his coaching staff would record the program's first 20 wins season since 1998 and the program has not looked back since. In 2019 Queens would make their first ECC postseason appearance and have gone on to make five straight appearances, the most in the ECC in the past five seasons, including earning the #2 seed in 2022.
 
After an ECC Championship finals appearance in 2022 their first since 1998, the 2023 squad would go on to break several records which began with setting a new regular season record in wins with 29 before the squad made history in the ECC Tournament. As the Knights broke the all-time single-season record for wins and the first-ever 30 wins, Reardon and company would put the year of 1998 behind them as the program won the first ECC title in program history. In the NCAA East Regional Tournament, the squad would become the first team to win a NCAA Tournament game in program history.
 
A year later the 2024 squad would post their second straight 30-win season and the most wins in the regular season. The 2024 squad would also receive votes in the NCBWA National Poll for the first time since 1998.
 
Reardon and the squad get their 2025 season underway in Myrtle Beach, SC on Thursday, Feb. 20.
 
A season preview and roster outlook will be posted in February.

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