Baseball hires Gordon as pitching coach
Aug. 28, 2007
Boston, MA

Northeastern University head baseball coach Neil McPhee has announced that Justin Gordon has been named an assistant coach for the Huskies. Gordon, who comes to Northeastern with three years of coaching experience and six years of experience in the minor leagues, will take charge of the Husky pitchers.

Gordon already has experience coaching some of the Huskies. He spent this past summer coaching the Little Falls Miners team of the New York Collegiate Baseball League, which sophomore infielder James Donaldson and sophomore pitcher Tyler Thornton played for. Gordon achieved success with the Miners, guiding the team to the NYCBL playoffs.

Gordon, 27, is coming off one season as the pitching coach at Temple. Prior to that, he was the pitching coach at Western Illinois, helping lead the Leathernecks to the Mid-Continent Conference championship game and a school-record 32 wins in 2006. The Western Illinois staff tied for the league lead in saves (10) and finished second in the league in team ERA (5.27), strikeouts (360) and opponents' batting average (.287) in 2006. Gordon guided Quinn Leath to first team All-Mid-Continent honors after leading the league in ERA (2.06) and opponents batting average (.224). He went 8-2 and fanned 54 batters in 78.2 innings.

Gordon spent the summer of 2006 as the pitching coach for the Harwich Mariners of the Cape Cod League. He mentored staff ace Dan Merklinger (Seton Hall) to All-Cape Cod League honors.

Gordon was drafted in the 32nd round of the 1999 Major League Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers after spending one year at Massasoit (Mass.) CC. He spent five seasons in the Brewers organization, advancing as high as Class A-Advanced with the High Desert Mavericks, recording five saves and striking out 72 batters in 83.1 innings in 2003.

He went 5-5 with a 4.26 ERA in 2000 for the Ogden Raptors and was named a Pioneer League All-Star. Gordon finished his career with the North Shore Spirit in the Northeast League, going 2-2 with a 3.68 ERA, including a 2-0 record with a 0.71 ERA during the playoffs.