A dream come true for ex-Serra baseball coach Craig Gianinno

Posey was recruited to pitch on the Cape Cod League, a position where his dynamic arm found a niche as Florida State’s closer. He was a burgeoning two-way standout with the Seminoles, an impact player in the field and on the mound. Pickler, though, embraced Posey’s makeup. And the more time the future three-time world champion spent on the Cape, it was clear he belonged on the field every day.

“You’re looking for the guys that are gamers,” Pickler said. “You’ve got to get the guys that love the game, love to play the game, and love to come out every day.”

In recent years, Pickler has found another gem cut from the “gamer” cloth in former Serra baseball manager Craig Gianinno.

After managing the Serra Padres from 2010-17, Gianinno continued his coaching career at University of San Francisco from 2018-20. He has since relocated to Sparta, New Jersey. That’s where he received the call for the coaching position of a lifetime.

“For me as a coach, it’s always been a goal and a dream to be able to coach in the Cape Cod League,” Gianinno said. “And I was lucky to get the opportunity to do that.”

It’s a primetime landing spot, for sure. In 25 years, Pickler has produced 118 future major leaguers. Posey’s former Yarmouth-Dennis teammates alone include future big leaguers Gordon Beckham, David Robertson, Collin Cowgill, Josh Fields and Grant Green.

Gianinno was initially asked to join Pickler’s staff prior to the summer of 2020, but the Cape Cod League was canceled that season due to the pandemic. Serra’s former skipper hung in there, and ultimately joined the staff in 2022.

“It’s just an incredible experience when you meet all these kids from all over the country and have two months to put together a team,” Gianinno said. “And through that, you become a family.”

Even since his Serra days, Gianinno has been revered as a life coach. Current Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder James Outman — a 2015 Serra graduate — told the Daily Journal he still relies on positive visualization technics he learned at Frisella Field, even if he didn’t fully appreciate he was learning them at the time.

Pickler certainly appreciates it. A longtime California community head baseball coach, who now serves as coach emeritus at Cypress College in Southern California, Pickler said Gianinno has become like a second head coach of the Y-D Red Sox.

“He does what I don’t do well,” Pickler said. “He’s the life coach, and he comes around and he teaches. He’s awesome. The kids love him.”

“He just talks to them in a different way than I do,” he said, “and I love him.”

From Serra, Gianinno brought an impressive resume of results in professional baseball. Two of his former Padres players are currently on big league rosters — Outman and Chicago Cubs pitcher Julian Merryweather — and another one, Collin Theroux, is the bullpen catcher for the New York Yankees.

Now, Gianinno is invested in another group of players who will almost certainly reach the show. In 2022, he got the chance to coach two highly-touted Stanford left-handers, Jordan Montgomery and 2020 Serra graduate Drew Dowd. Both were drafted in 2023.

Gianinno can talk up a biography on each one of his players, including 2024 MLB Draft eligible slugger Hunter Hines, who last season as a sophomore at Mississippi State cracked the top 10 in career home runs for the Southeast Conference program, and went on to hit 13 homers for Yarmouth-Dennis.

“It’s a balancing act,” Gianinno said of developing players. “It all starts with getting to know the player … getting to know the human being, getting to know their human heartbeat … and really listening to them and finding out what they’re really trying to achieve.”

If they’re playing in the Cape, what they’re trying to achieve is to find similar success to that enjoyed by Posey with the Giants.

“There is no doubt because I get 15 to 20 GMs, scouting directors, whatever, and they will call me near the draft,” Pickler said. “And they’re not asking me about how they played, what they did at the plate. They’re asking me about makeup.”

This is Gianinno’s first coaching position with a bona fide collegiate summer league. The closest he got previously was working summer camps at College of San Mateo with Bulldogs coach Doug Williams. When he took the coaching job at USF, infielder Nico Giarratano was entering his senior season with the Dons. Giarratano played two seasons in the Cape Cod League.

It was through the Giarratano family — Nico Giarratano’s father Nino served as USF’s head coach from 1999-2022 — that Gianinno was recommended to Pickler.

Now, Gianinno has found a second home in Yarmouth-Dennis.

“It’s America,” Gianinno said of the Cape. “It’s as patriotic as it gets. It’s a family-oriented experience. You’re playing on high school baseball fields, the games are free, there’s 10 teams in the Cape and the fans on the Cape have so much fun.”

Gianinno said he plans to return to the Cape Cod League in 2024.

“Oh, there’s no doubt,” Gianinno said. “As long as Coach Pickler will have me. Yeah, I’m going to go back.”