Eric Podbelski begins his 16th season at the helm of the Wheaton College baseball program in 2012. Podbelski has built Wheaton's baseball program from the ground up, accumulating one of the highest winning percentages among active NCAA Division III coaches at .721 (434-167-4) through Wheaton's first 14 years of varsity play. He and the program earned their 400th win on May 7, 2010 at Roger Williams University.

The 2011 Lyons captured their 12th New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season championship and 11th league tournament title in the 13-year history of the NEWMAC. As a result, Wheaton earned its 10th NCAA Tournament berth in 12 seasons. Podbelski’s squad recorded the program’s seventh-straight 30-win season, finishing with a record of 32-12, and he saw four of his student-athletes receive First Team All-NEWMAC honors. The Lyons – who also received the NEWMAC Sportsmanship Award in 2011 – were ranked 22th in the final D3baseball.com after going 3-2 in the NCAA New England Regional Tournament.

In addition to winning 11 NEWMAC Tournament titles since 1999, the Lyons also hosted the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Tournament in 1999 and qualified for their first ECAC Tournament in 1998 – the team's first year of varsity competition. Eight years later, the 2006 squad made the school’s first national championship game appearance while going 42–10 and recording the highest win total in team history.

Podbelski was awarded New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association (NEIBA) Division III Coach-of-the-Year honors in 2001, 2002, 2006 and 2007, which earned him a coaching position at the NEIBA All-Star Game at Boston's Fenway Park. He has also been named NEWMAC Coach of the Year nine times.

In the past 10 seasons, Podbelski has produced nine All-America selections and six professional players, including two Major League Baseball (MLB) signees. Wheaton's lone MLB draftee, Chris Denorfia '02, was taken by the Cincinnati Reds in the 19th round in June 2002. Denorfia has swiftly made his way up the professional ranks, most notably his 2005 jump from Double-A Chattanooga to the big leagues. Recalled to Cincinnati in 2006 from Triple-A Louisville and traded to Oakland in 2007, Denorfia signed with San Diego in 2010. He batted .271 with 15 doubles, nine home runs and 36 RBI in 99 games with the Padres last season and opened the 2011 season on the team’s 40-man roster.

In addition to his baseball coaching duties, Podbelski has also served on the NCAA and ECAC Tournament selection committees.

A 1991 graduate of Brandeis University, Podbelski finished his career as one of the school's all-time winningest pitchers with 23 victories. After a junior year in which he was named to three postseason all-star teams, he was invited to play for the Falmouth Commodores in the prestigious Cape Cod League.

Podbelski went on to serve as an assistant coach at Brandeis for five years. Under his direction, Podbelski's pitching staff was among the national leaders in team earned run average four times, including in 1994, when it led Division III in ERA at 2.33.

In high school, Podbelski was a standout baseball player at Plymouth-Carver Regional. Named to numerous all-star and all-scholastic teams, he capped his high school career by being selected as a Golden Spikes Award finalist and playing in the 1987 United States Olympic Festival as a member of the USA East team.

Podbelski and his wife, Amy, reside in Norton with twin girls Erin and Shea. 

Pete Pasquarosa, who has been involved in coaching for more than two decades, begins his third season on the Wheaton staff in 2012.

Since 2004, Pasquarosa has served as an assistant coach with the Harwich Mariners of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) after coaching in 1991 with the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox.

From 2007-09, Pasquarosa was an assistant coach at New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) counterpart Babson College, which he helped win the league tournament title and qualify for the NCAA Tournament in 2009. During the prior two springs, Pasquarosa was an assistant coach at Division I Boston College, which set a school record with 37 wins his first year.

Between 1988 and 2004, Pasquarosa worked with the baseball program at nearby Franklin High School, including heading the varsity team for the final 13 years of that stint. Pasquarosa was also the school's athletic director from 1992-2001. In 2000, he was honored as an American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) regional coach of the year and earned a top coaching accolade from the Boston Globe. Two years later, Pasquarosa was lauded at Fenway Park for earning a statewide sportsmanship award.

Pasquarosa served as the head instructor for the Franklin-based Tri-Valley Baseball camps from 1988-2003 and was the director of baseball clinics at Boston College in 2005 and 2006. He also spent time as a Bay State Games coach from 1994-2003. Beyond coaching, Pasquarosa has produced articles that have run in coaching and physical education publications while also speaking at major coaching functions.

After earning an associate's degree from Dean College in 1974, Pasquarosa played two years for Georgia Southern University, graduating with a degree in health and physical education in 1978. He received a master's degree in education from Salem State College in 2007.

Zach Brown is in the midst of his 10th season as an assistant coach at Wheaton in 2012, where he served as the only four-year captain in program history before graduating in 2002.

Playing in 116 career games, Brown was a member of four New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) regular season and tournament champion teams and helped the Lyons qualify for their first three NCAA Tournament appearances. During Brown's junior season, he hit a career-high .319 with 26 RBI in 29 starts.

Brown earned NEWMAC Academic All-Conference honors during each his junior and senior years before graduating magna cum laude with a degree in psychology. He transferred from Division I Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina, after attending the college on a baseball scholarship.

One of the original members of Wheaton's first varsity team in 1998, Ryan Parker is entering his ninth season as an assistant coach in 2012. In the summer of 2008, Parker helped lead the Harwich Mariners to the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL) Championship, as he assisted with the pitching staff.

This is Parker's second coaching stint with the Lyons, as he assisted in 2003 before returning in 2006 to work primarily with the pitchers. During the 2004 and 2005 seasons, Parker was the assistant coach at Roger Williams University in Bristol, Rhode Island. At Roger Williams, Parker developed the pitching staff in addition to recruiting.

A 2001 Wheaton graduate with a degree in sociology, Parker appeared in 46 career games over four years, making 35 relief appearances while posting a 7-4 record. He has the distinction of being the winning pitcher in the Lyons' first New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) Tournament championship game, as Parker tossed six innings during a 4-0 win over Springfield College on April 26, 1999. Parker also recorded the first save in program history, which occurred on March 20, 1998, against the State University of New York at Old Westbury.

Nick Puccio begins his first season as an assistant baseball coach at Wheaton College in 2012.

Puccio joins the Wheaton staff after spending the 2011 season as an assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator at Southeastern Iowa Community College. In 2011, Puccio helped the team win a school-record 44 games and climb as high as No. 14 in the national rankings. Nine of his players earned Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) All-ICCAC honors – including the conference’s MVP, Yhoxian Medina.

Puccio is currently the associate head coach and pitching coach for the New Bedford Red Sox, a position he has held since 2009. He has previous coaching stints with the Rockville Express (assoc. head coach/pitching coach) and at both Dean College (top asst. coach/recruiting coordinator) and Fitchburg State (asst. coach/camp coordinator). Puccio spent two years as a member of the Bulldogs baseball team (2006-07) and one with the Falcons (2008).

Pucci received his associate of arts in education from Dean College in 2007 and his bachelor of science in interdisciplinary studies from Fitchburg State in 2010. He is currently working towards a Master’s degree in sports management at American Public University.