A storied career comes to a close
Charlie Hickey, the longtime head baseball coach at Central Connecticut State University, announced that he will retire at the end of the current season, bringing to a close a 27‑year tenure that produced 818 career victories at the Division I level.
During his era the Blue Devils captured nine NCAA Tournament berths, highlighted by a program‑record 41 regular‑season wins in 2004, a milestone that still stands as the benchmark for success in the school’s history.
The team’s lone NCAA Tournament victory came in 2019, when the Blue Devils upset California in a dramatic first‑round matchup, a moment that remains a touchstone for the program’s competitive resurgence.
Among the standout players he mentored, Evan Scribner emerged as the school’s all‑time leader in both wins and saves, later translating that success to the professional ranks with a 2011 MLB debut for the San Diego Padres, the only major‑league club explicitly named in the report.
Hickey’s own athletic background spans both football and baseball at Xavier High School in Middletown, where he later earned a degree from the University of Connecticut in 1987 before launching a coaching career that began at Providence College, a stint cut short when the baseball program was discontinued under Title IX regulations.
He will be succeeded by current assistant Pat Hall, who inherits a program steeped in tradition and poised to build on the foundation laid by Hickey’s decades of leadership.