Atlantic Cape Community College baseball coach Rodney Velardi is out of a job after his team was found to have used illegal communication devices in two of their players’ batting helmets during an 11-4 loss to Rowland College Gloucester County on April 22.
“After the situation with the game, he was suspended pending the outcome of the NJCAA Region 19 review, and at that time, we had asked for him to resign,” Atlantic Cape Chief Marketing Office Laura Batchelor told The Courier Post.
According to the report, Rowan College freshman pitcher Ethan Dodd approached his coaches after the game wondering if the opponents had tipped pitches during the 11-6 victory.
“He had a feeling they were getting really good swings on pitches that he thought were good pitches,” Roadrunners head coach Rob Valli told The Courier Post.
Valli initially didn’t believe the theory.
“We kind of dismissed it,” Valli added. “We didn’t think there was anything there. In hindsight? His senses were OK.”
Valli later admitted he felt Atlantic Cape was making “some aggressive swings on tough pitches and was getting excellent reads on the basepaths, too.”
First baseman Felix Diaz broke open the case when he told Valli that he could hear a voice coming from an opposing player’s helmet in the following inning.
After initially refusing to believe his opponents would stoop to such a level, Valli asked the umpire to check two Atnaltic Cape helmets in the bottom of the third inning.
Both baserunners were found to have earpieces in their helmets.
Atlantic Cape athletic director Jamal Edwards told The Courier Post that Velardi claimed the devices were used for practice.
“Coach Velardi at the time said that those (devices) were just used for practice,” Vice President of Student Affairs Natalie Devonish detailed in her investigation. “We found out after the fact that those (devices) had even been purchased. The college was not aware of that. We were not aware they were being used, electronic devices. We could not say whether there was actual malfeasance at the field (that day).”
