Wednesday was a Special Day for Calliari Family when PSU DuBois met IUP in Baseball

DuBOIS, Pa. – Wednesday evening at Showers’ Field in DuBois was a family affair as the Penn State DuBois and IUP baseball teams met.

Penn State DuBois head coach Tom Calliari had never been on the opposite side from his younger brother, Chris, but that all changed as the Nittany Lions met the Crimson Hawks. Chris is a junior left-fielder for IUP. To top it off, Tom’s daughter, Emily, sung the national anthem before the first pitch.

Watch Emily sing the national anthem

Chris Calliari, before Wednesday’s game, which was won by IUP 17-5, was hitting .254 with a team-high four home runs. His 17 runs scored were second as were his 15 RBIs. Calliari starred at Brockway before choosing to play at IUP where he has had a good career.

As a true freshman, Calliari hit .301 while starting 33 games. In 2015, he hit .255 while playing in 23 games.

Calliari was named the IUP Athlete of the Week Monday for the week ending Sunday, March 20.

Calliari was named the Athlete of the Week thanks to a big game in game one of Thursday’s doubleheader at Gannon. On the week, Calliari hit .300 (3-for-10), slugged 1.000 and reached base on a home run and double.

In Thursday’s 17-11 loss, Calliari hit a fourth-inning RBI double to right field to score the Crimson Hawks’ first run. In the seventh inning, Calliari hit a grand slam to center field as IUP scored seven runs in the inning.

Calliari finished the game 3-for-3 with the grand slam, double and 8 RBI.

Watch Chris Calliari double Wednesday vs. the Nittany Lions.

Tom Calliari has spent a lifetime in baseball and has undertaken a new challenge this year, starting the PSU DuBois team from scratch.

Tom Calliari talks about the PSU DuBois program

For Tom, after playing at Lock Haven University, he has coached baseball for two decades, including as an assistant at Penn State University in 1996 when the Lions won their only Big 10 title.

He then moved to Cleveland, Ohio to work at the Northern Ohio baseball club where he became an instructor at the Baseball School in Strongsville,Ohio. Calliari spent the 1998 season at Div. III Greensboro College in Greensboro, N.C. Greensboro won its first and only Dixie Conference Championship and was awarded an NCAA South Regional birth in his only year at Greensboro College.

After the 1997 season he was awarded the USA Baseball Pennsylvania Amateur Coach of the Year. At the high school level he spent three seasons at DuBois Central Catholic and Brockway High School as head coach with a combined record of 34-23.

He was the co-director of the Triple Play Baseball Camp held for 6 years at the DuBois Little League facility. He most recently coached an amateur travel team sponsored by BWP Bats for four seasons. His team had a record of 125-48-1 while also winning the prestigious Buckeye Classic in Columbus, Ohio and placed sixth at the USA Baseball Nationals in Richmond, Va. Finally, He has been a camp instructor at Penn State University, Greensboro, Clarion, IUP, Lock Haven, and Western Michigan. Tom has spent the last 17 years teaching Health and Physical Education at Towanda, Philipsburg-Osceola and currently in the DuBois Area school district.

Tom, 42, resides with his wife Stacia and daughters Emily and Peyton in Brockway.

Story by Scott Shindledecker