New Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale nearly has all the pieces in place to begin moving forward with his program. The final member of his coaching staff was named Thursday as Sacramento State assistant Toby DeMello was announced by the Wildcats to fill a similar role in Tucson.
The former St. Mary's standout catcher spent three seasons with the Hornets serving first as Sac State's director of operations and analytics before stepping into a volunteer assistant role beginning in 2020.
"Coach DeMello is tremendous addition to our staff who will greatly advance the development of our student-athletes," Hale said in a statement provided by the program. "His experience as both a Division I and professional athlete helps him connect with his players and build their skill sets for long-term success.
"Coach DeMello has won everywhere he has gone, and I expect that trend to continue as we look to make our push back to Omaha."
DeMello is a versatile coach who had a hand in helping the Hornets in a variety of ways during his time in Sacramento. He served as first base coach in addition to his other duties that included being the team's catching coach, assisting with the hitters and aligning the defense.
He's been on the staffs at Southern Illinois, Occidental College and Sierra College prior to his previous role at Sac State.
While at St. Mary's as a player the new UA assistant was a semifinalist for the Johnny Bench Award in 2012 while playing 156 games during his career with the Gaels. DeMello eventually went on to play professional baseball for five years after being selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 29th round of the 2012 MLB Draft.
He has experience coaching catchers, and Arizona will return one of the top catchers in college baseball as All-American Daniel Susac is set to return to play for the Wildcats despite the recent departure of former head coach Jay Johnson.
The Wildcats have been able to retain a number of key players from its 2021 roster coming off its latest trip to the College World Series. Johnson decided to move on to take over LSU's program shortly after the season paving the way for Hale to step into a college head coaching role for the first time in his career.
Dave Lawn was retained by Hale and will remain with the program as its pitching coach while South Carolina assistant Trip Couch was added to the staff earlier this month as well.
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