Suffield's Schult Picked For Eastern Athletics Alumni Hall of Fame

WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – James J. Schult, who hit and pitched the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team to four NCAA tournaments and three Little East Conference regular-season and tournament titles in four years, has been selected for induction into the Eastern Athletics Alumni Hall of Fame.

Schult, who lives in Suffield, (2008-2011) is the fifth and final announced member of the Alumni Hall of Fame Class of 2023, following the previous announcements of two-time softball All-America Arielle (Cooper) Porter ’13, four-time All-Little East Conference men’s lacrosse goalie Kyle Savage’09, two-time All-New England volleyball player Karen Sweet ’98 and former national Pitcher-of-the-Year Ryan DiPietro (2003-2005), who later returned to earn his degree after being drafted into professional baseball following his junior year.

Eastern will conduct its 29th induction ceremony and social Saturday, Oct. 21 at the Betty R. Tipton Room in the campus’ Student Center. The social begins at 3:30 p.m., with the induction ceremony to follow at 5 p.m. In addition to five Eastern Hall of Fame inductees and the Michael Atkind Exceptional Service Award selectee, four-time All-America softball player Molly Rathbun ’12 – a three-year teammate of Cooper --will be honored as a Little East Conference Hall of Fame inductee.

Tickets for the induction ceremony and social are priced at $50 each and can be reserved by contacting committee chair Scott Smith at 860-465-4326 or at smithsc@easternct.edu.

A 6-0, 200 pound right-handed hitter and pitcher, Schult led or shared the team lead in 18 hitting and pitching categories as a senior in 2011 when he was named National College Baseball Writers of America (NCBWA) and ABCA Player-of-the-Year as well as ECAC and Little East Conference Pitcher-of-the-Year. That season, he led the Little East in four pitching and three hitting categories, setting or equalling personal career-highs in 12 offensive categories, among them hits (76), extra-base hits (35), home runs (11), RBI (64), total bases (138) and stolen bases (20). On the mound, he was 10-1 with a career-high 92 strikeouts in a career-high 87 innings.

Schult played his entire Eastern career under National College Baseball, ABCA and Alumni Hall of Fame coach Bill Holowaty. “He motivated me and pulled the very most out of me,” recalls Schult of Holowaty. “He showed me that there was always something that I could be doing to get better. He also was able to convey the uniqueness and brevity of the college baseball experience within the bigger picture of life, and I’m forever grateful for that,” added Schult, who also pointed out the influence of assistant coach and Alumni Hall of Famer Len Reed. “Coach Reed was always there to pick me up when I was in a tough stretch,” says Schult. “As a senior, I sat right next to him on the bench, and I learned so much about the game from him.”

Two facts accurately define Schult’s talent, consistency, and versatility: 1. He was named to the All-Little East team five times at three different positions. He was a first-team pitcher as a senior and a first-team

outfielder as a junior, and a second-team pick in the outfield as a sophomore, as a pitcher as a junior and as a DH as a senior; 2. twelve years after graduation, Schult remains ranked among the all-time Top 10 in 13 of a possible 15 career hitting categories. In seven categories, he is still ranks fifth or higher: second in extra-base hits (105) and doubles (63), third in total bases (417), fourth in runs (199) and RBI (189) and fifth in hits (242) and triples (14).

“Jim pushed himself to the limits, both physically and mentally, to achieve greatness on and off the baseball field. When thinking about passion for the game, Jim would be the first person to come to mind,” says Schult’s catcher, Steve Cammuso. “He was never late to practice or a workout and was never satisfied. He was always the one to work the hardest, push the hardest, focus the most, and dedicate his time to fine-tune a skill, form, or pitch that was already impressive. Good players play well some of the time, but great players, like Jim, play great all of the time. He was a competitor, humble, took ownership, had a willingness to help others, and had a tireless pursuit to support his teammates.”

In 2011, Schult collected at least 50 hits and 50 RBI for the second time in three years and remains one of only three players in program history to achieve that more than once in a career. His extra-base hit total that year is the fifth-highest in a season, with his total bases equalling the fifth-most. That year, he collected exactly 19 doubles (three shy of the season record) for the third straight year (no player has had as many as 19 doubles more than once in a career).

As a pitcher in 2011, Schult never lost a start – in all, winning his final eight decisions. In post-season play, he threw complete games in his final two career starts, striking out ten UMass Boston batters in an 8-4 win in an elimination game of the Little East tournament in the final home start of his career, and throwing his first career shutout with 12 strikeouts in a 2-0 five-hit win over College at Brockport in the opening round of the NCAA Division III regional tournament at Auburn, NY.

During that 2011 season, Eastern was ranked as high as No. 5 nationally (first in New England) following a 25-4 start, had two nine-game winning streaks, lost as many as two straight games only twice in the regular season and won the Little East regular-season title for the 11th time in 15 years. For his part offensively during his final season, Schult had a 13-game hitting streak, reached safely in 36 of 38 regular-season games, went 33 straight games without going hitless in as many as two straight, and contributed 16 multi-hit games (four times collecting four hits in a game).

In his final appearance in an Eastern uniform, Schult pitched a 1-2-3 fourth inning, fanning his final Division I batter looking on a 3-2 pitch at the New England College All-Star Game on June 2, 2011 at LeLacheur Park in Lowell, MA.

Schult holds B.S. Degrees in Business from Eastern and in Accounting from Marist College and is an accounting supervisor at the Blue Bell, PA office for RSM, the nation’s fifth-largest accounting firm in the U.S. Jim and Jade Schult reside in Suffield.