Our Staff of Baseball Trainers & Softball Trainers

Yorke played collegiately for Drew University and graduated in 1996 holding most of the offensive records. He was selected 1st Team All-MAC Conference 4 years, 1st Team All- ECAC 4 years, Team Captain and Team MVP in 1996. Dave was Drew’s 1st All-NJCBA selection garnering 1st team honors in 1996. In HS at Point Pleasant Beach he was selected All-State, All-Shore and All-County twice each, in his final two years at PPB he led Ocean County in batting average and was selected as the Ocean County Offensive Player of the Year in 1991.

Upon graduation from college Yorke received playing opportunities with multiple major league teams including an extended tryout with the S.F. Giants. After the conclusion of his playing career he coached at several institutions including Drew University, Seton Hall, CCNY and NYU. Along with being an assistant and head baseball coach, he served as an Assistant Athletic Director, Recruiting Coordinator and NCAA Compliance Coordinator. Since he left coaching Dave has been a Senior Advisor and Head Baseball Consultant with a college recruiting and placement firm as well as a scout and instructor for several MLB franchises.

Coach Andrew played varsity baseball at St. Joseph Regional HS and was a member of the 2013 Bergen County Championship team.  He went on to play for Franklin and Marshall College as both a closer and starting pitcher. As a freshman he set the Centennial Conference single season saves record and the next year continued to set the career saves record. By the time he graduated Andrew was a 3x All Centennial Conference pitcher with a career ERA of 3.07, 104 Ks in 137.2 innings of work, and was named a member of the All-Decade Team as a relief pitcher.

After graduating F&M in 2018 Coach Andrew has been providing 1 on 1 personal instruction to ballplayers of all ages as well as coaching several teams. He is also certified as a personal trainer by the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

Taylor brings years of valuable playing and coaching experience to In The Zone Baseball & Softball Academy. As a four-year starting catcher and DH for Dowling College from 2008-2012, he was a key contributor on both offense (led all offensive categories in 2008) and defense. He was named team captain in 2012. Taylor was also the starting catcher at Northern Highlands Regional High School for three years, earning multiple 1st-team all-league selections while serving as captain.

Since his scholastic playing days, he has continued to share his love of baseball with aspiring athletes. Taylor coached youth baseball for three years in addition to instructing at prominent New Jersey baseball academies before joining ITZ in 2015. In addition to his work at ITZ, Coach Taylor is the assistant baseball coach at St. Elizabeth University.

Mike Sutlovich has been blessed to be given the opportunity to work with Baseball and softball players since 1996.He has had over 500 students go on to play college baseball and softball. Was a pioneer in opening a Baseball and softball academy in 1999 and has produced All Americans, All State and All county students.

He has worked as a scout for the Seattle Mariners and Anaheim Angels, had the honor of scouting Mike Trout, Rick Porcello and Todd Frazier.

He has had 8 students drafted. His most recent students, Frank Schwindel and Mike Ford were both in the big leagues this year (2021).  He has the ability to teach students from ages 6 to 60 and always makes sure that they are having fun.

Coach Pinkman has been assistant coach / pitching coach with Seton Hall since 2018 after serving in the same capacity for Fordham University. In the 2018 season, the pitching staff led the conference in BIG EAST-only games with a 2.04 ERA and 166 strikeouts.  While at Fordham, pitchers broke the team record for strikeouts with 414 in 2017. Prior to Fordham Pinkman served as pitching coach at both Marymount & Washington University.

 Pinkman served as vice president and lead instructor at the Pinkman Baseball Academy from 2002-11. Between his time there and coaching collegiately, he has mentored and instructed 100’s of players that have played at the college, minor league, and MLB levels. 

A former standout at Virginia Tech, Pinkman was a Freshman All-American in 1998 and named the Atlantic-10 Rookie of the Year. He set freshman records for wins (seven), innings pitched (89), strikeouts (81), pickoffs (10) and complete games (seven). As a sophomore, he set an NCAA Division I record with 19 pickoffs and a sophomore record with nine complete games.

Coach Pinkman joined In The Zone Academy fall of 2020 as Program Director of 360 Pitching

Kenny Costa, a 2-time All Conference selection while at Lenape Valley High School continued his baseball career first at Sussex Community College followed by two very successful years at Mercy College. After playing for Mercy, Kenny moved into the coaching role with them for 2 seasons before returning to NJ to take over the Varsity Baseball coaching job as of the 2020 season at his Alma Mater, Lenape Valley High School.

Kenny has been training baseball athletes of all ages for several years, most recently at an indoor facility close to Mercy College. He has expertise in a variety of areas including hitting, pitching, & defense.

Tyler Pagaduan played college baseball at Geneva College in Western Pennsylvania, where he was a starter all 4 years as an Outfielder, and lefty specialist. Tyler finished his Senior year with a .339 batting average (top 15 in PAC) .467 on base percentage (top 5 in PAC), and led Geneva to its first winning season in 10 years. Before Geneva he attended Eastern Regional High School in Voorhees, NJ where he was 4 time Varsity starter, and helped lead the team to the State and Camden County Tournament Championships.

At Geneva, Tyler was a Double Major in Sports Management/Business and Biology. He was recently named as a scout for the Geneva baseball program to assist in recruiting student-athletes from New Jersey interested in continuing their academic and athletic careers at Geneva.

Born and raised in Caracas, Venezuela Jose started playing baseball at 4 years old. In 2005, at the age of 15, he represented Venezuela in the Pan American Tournament in Colombia where his team took 3rd place. He played college baseball at Oakland City University in Oakland City, IN.

Jose signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks as a pitcher and played in their MiLB system from 2008-2010. He continued his baseball career as a pitcher for the Broward Waverunners in the Florida Winter Baseball League (Independent League) in Pompano Beach, Florida

Living in Flanders, NJ, Jose has enjoyed being a coach and private instructor at In The Zone since early 2019. His knowledge of the game is second to none, having been coached by and played alongside top MLB coaches and players for many years.

Coach Mehmedi is a graduate of Sparta High School where he was a wrestler and football player for 3 years and played baseball for all 4. He then attended Sussex County College from 2005-06 playing baseball for Todd Poltersdorf as a catcher and relief pitcher. Mehmedi transferred to NJCU for 2007-2008 where he finished his degree and completed his collegiate baseball career.

From 2010-2012, Mehmedi was hired as the Assistant Coach at SCCC under Head Coach Todd Poltersdorf, focusing on pitchers and catchers, while also providing strength and conditioning programs for all players.

In 2013, he took over the baseball program as Head Coach in the middle of the Fall season and will now be entering his 8th year with SCCC.