Cliff Smith

Title

Assistant Baseball Coach

Cliff Smith ended his 11th season with the Elizabethtown baseball team in style, capturing the program's first Landmark Conference championship and taking the Blue Jays back to the NCAA Championship tournament for the first time since 2009.

Smith, who moved past 250 career victories during the 2017 season, also guided the Blue Jays to MAC Commonwealth championships in 2007 and 2009.

Anchored by an offense that ranked 57th in Division III nationally in hits (447) and 71st in runs (288), along with a pitching staff that allowed the 13th fewest walks per nine innings (2.51), Smith's Blue Jays finished with a 28-17 record in 2017 --Elizabethtown's highest win total since 2009 and tied for the fourth winningest season in the program's 85 seasons of play.

E-town entered the Landmark Championship tournament as the No. 3 seed, but quickly secured its spot in the championship with wins over No. 2 Susquehanna and No. 1 Catholic on the opening day of play. The Blue Jays again toppled Susquehanna, 6-2, in a winner-take-all game to win the Landmark title and earn the league's automatic berth into the NCAA Championships.

The Blue Jays were sent to nearby York for the Mid-Atlantic Regional, going 1-2 with a win over Maritime. Elizabethtown is 4-6 in three NCAA Championships appearances under Smith with at least one victory in all three trips.

Elizabethtown secured its second consecutive 25-win season in 2016, reaching the Landmark Conference championship series for the first time. The Blue Jays went 25-20 overall and 14-7 within the Landmark Conference to earn its No. 3 seed in the postseason. E-town knocked off No. 2 seed Moravian in a three-game semifinal series before falling to top-seeded Susquehanna in the championship.

Smith led the Blue Jays to a 25-16 overall record and a spot in the Landmark Conference tournament in 2015, the program's inaugural season as a league member. Smith earned his 200th career victory in game one of a doubleheader at Susquehanna on April 25.

The ninth head coach in program history, Smith guided the Blue Jays to their 1,000th all-time victory, a MAC Commonwealth Conference title and an NCAA Division III Championship tournament appearance in 2007, his first year in the dugout. E-town returned to the national tournament after winning the conference title in 2009.

Smith surpassed Ira R. Herr, the founding father of Elizabethtown College Athletics, for third on the program's all-time coaching wins list in 2015 and moved into second ahead of Hall of Fame coach John Gergic early in 2017.

A 2001 Brandeis University alum, Smith earned his 100th career victory in just his 158th game with a 9-3 win at Arcadia on May 1, 2010, becoming the fastest coach to 100 wins in program history.

Elizabethtown has enjoyed eight 20-win seasons and seven winning campaigns with Smith at the helm.

Prior to joining the Blue and Gray, Smith was an assistant coach at Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, and an educational technician in the special education department at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, Maine.

Smith served as pitching coach and his hurlers posted a 3.30 ERA as Bowdoin won a school record 28 games (28-10) and advanced to the NCAA Division III Championship tournament in 2006. Smith was also involved heavily with the program's recruiting, fundraising, off-season strength and conditioning programs, skills and strategy instruction, and daily managerial duties.

Smith earned his Bachelor of Arts in history from Brandeis in 2001, before embarking on a five-year professional playing career from 2001-05. The right-handed pitcher signed a free agent contract with the now-Los Angeles Angels and advanced as high as Double A Arkansas in their organizational ladder in 2003 and 2004.

Born in Portland, Maine, Smith was a lifelong New Englander before gaining exposure to Lancaster County as an inaugural member of the independent Atlantic League's Lancaster Barnstormers in 2005. Smith capped his playing career in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization at Single A Hickory (N.C.) later that season.

Cliff Smith Year-by-Year
	Overall			Conference
Year	Wins	Losses	Pct.	Wins	Losses	Pct.	Postseason
2007	23	18	.561	13	8	.619	Commonwealth Conference Champions NCAA Division III Championships Qualifier
2008	26	12	.684	10	2	.833	Commonwealth Conference Runner-up
2009	29	15	.659	12	3	.800	Commonwealth Conference Champions NCAA Division III Championships Qualifier
2010	24	16	.600	11	7	.611	Commonwealth Conference Runner-up
2011	19	19	.500	10	8	.556	Commonwealth Conference Runner-up
2012	20	22	.455	9	9	.500	Commonwealth Conference Championships Qualifier
2013	17	22	.436	10	11	.476
2014	18	19	.486	8	13	.381
2015	25	16	.610	13	8	.619	Landmark Conference Semifinals
2016	25	20	.556	14	7	.667	Landmark Conference Runner-up
2017	28	17	.622	11	7	.611	Landmark Conference Champions NCAA Division III Championships Qualifier
10 seasons	254	196	.564	121	83	.593

Updated on 7/27/17