The 2017 season will mark Coach Watson’s ninth as Head Baseball Coach at Bloomfield College, a Division II school. He is a highly respected coach who started with Bloomfield college in 2008 as an assistant coach, recruiting coordinator and hitting instructor.
Coach Watson graduated from West Milford High School and continued his athletic career as a two-sport athlete at American International College, starring in both football and baseball. He was a three-time All-Northeast 10 Conference selection and holds the school’s career records for hits, doubles and RBIs.
In addition to providing private one-on-one instruction, Coach Watson serves as the Director, Club Baseball Program for In The Zone Baseball & Softball Academy. In this role he will serve as a strong and consistent positive role model for our players and coaches. His knowledge of the recruiting process, network of college level contacts and high level coaching experience are invaluable to our academy.
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.
Tony Peralta enters his fourth year at ITZ, showing his commitment to the organization. Peralta is our Senior Pitching Instructor as well as our head Showcase Coach. He specializes in pitching instruction and works with athletes of all ages. Over the last few years, Peralta produced athletic commits to collegiate programs such as NC State University, Oberlin College, Drew University, Saint Rose College, and Montclair University.
Peralta is currently in his seventh season as an assistant coach on the Bears Baseball staff at Bloomfield College. He assists in all areas of the baseball program, including recruiting, designing workout programs for, and in-game management of the bullpen staff.
Tony brings professional playing experience to ITZ after signing to the Detroit Tigers organization in 2003. Peralta played in the Tigers organization for 4 years and pitched to a 3.70 ERA in over 107 innings, boasting 101 strikeouts in the process. During his tenure, he was a three-time Player of the Week and earned Instructional League Invitation on three separate occasions. Additionally, he played winter baseball in the Dominican republic with the Aguilas Cibenas Organization, where he maintained an 3-0 winning record & ERA of 3.60 and was part of the 2007 Winter League Championship team.
Prior to his professional career, Tony played baseball for West Orange High School where he starred as a pitcher, outfielder and first baseman. During his time there, he was named to the All-Conference and All-County teams for three seasons, culminating in All-State accolades during his senior year. He capped off his career with a 24-5 record and an ERA under 2.0. Tony currently holds the NJ state record for lowest strike out to walk ratio by compiling 109 strikeouts and only 9 walks in 88 innings. As a result of his immense success, Tony was inducted into the West Orange High School Hall of Fame in 2013 and the West Orange TownHall of Fame in 2017.
Tony resides in Livingston with his lovely family.
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.
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.
Read Brown was a Catcher and First Baseman during his playing career which started at NCAA D2 Palm Beach Atlantic in West Palm Beach, Florida under MLB Hall Of Fame Catcher Gary Carter. Brown transferred to, and graduated from NCAA D2 Lenoir-Rhyne in Hickory, NC. After Graduation, he stayed on as a Graduate Assistant at Lenoir-Rhyne before moving on to be the Recruiting Coordinator for NCAA D2 Glenville State College in Glenville, WV.
After 2 years with Glenville, Read stayed on the path of Recruiting, bringing his playing, coaching and recruiting experience to East Stroudsburg University, where he is now in his 2nd year as Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator with the Warriors.
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.
Amy graduated in 2009 from Geneva College with an undergraduate degree in Elementary Education and has been teaching fourth grade in the Roxbury School District for the past eight years, just recently receiving a Masters in Special Education from William Paterson University.
While at Geneva College, Amy was the starting catcher for the women’s softball team for four years, as well as being a captain her junior and senior years. She has been a catcher since age 12 but also played Center-field throughout my career. Although catching is her first love, hitting is a close second. Amy holds nine offensive records at Geneva College – Single Season Hits, Single Season Batting Average, Single Season Home-runs, Single Season RBIs, Career Hits, Career Batting Average, Career Home-runs, and Career RBIs. Below are some of the awards Amy received throughout my career:
- NCCAA Scholar Athlete 2007-2009
- NCCAA All American Catcher First Team Spring 2007, 2008, and 2009
- NCCAA All Region Player of the Year Spring 2008 and 2009
- NCAA East Regional First Team Spring 2008 and 2009
- NCAA PAC Coaches Honors First Team Spring 2008 and 2009
- NCCAA AMC All Conference Spring 2008 and 2009
- NCAA Pre-Season All-American Winter 2009
- Eastern College Athletic Conference All-Star Team Spring 2008
Amy have a total of 9 years of coaching experience at the high school varsity level. She coached at Madison High School for 6 years, helping lead the program to the state finals 2 years in a row. After Madison, Amy coached at Wayne Hills High School and recently was brought on as Varsity Softball Coach at Jefferson H.S.
Meagan Madsen is entering her 3rd season as the Assistant Softball Coach and Pitching Coach for the Centenary Cyclones. Madsen played all four years at Centenary setting records throughout her career and leading the team to back-to-back CSAC Championships in 2011 & 2012.
She became the first Centenary pitcher to make over 100-career appearances, while also becoming the All-Time leader in complete game shutouts (16) and innings pitched (439.1) and saves (5). In 2012 as a sophomore, Madsen led was named CSAC Pitcher of the Year following a season of 123 innings pitched recording an ERA of 3.06 with 59 strikeouts and five shutouts.
In 2011, Madsen was named to the Second Team All-CSAC Pitcher, Team MVP and ECAC South Pitcher of the Week.
Throughout her career, Madsen has been named to the CSAC All-Academic Team three times, recipient of the Cardy Gemma Award, First Team All-CSAC, CSAC Honorable Mention and multiple CSAC Pitcher of the weeks.
Madsen graduated in May 2014 with a Bachelors in Social Work and currently working towards her Masters in School Counseling.
Sam graduated in 2009 from Haverford College with an undergraduate degree in English and then went on to pursue a graduate degree in Special Education. She taught both English and Special Education at the secondary level before assuming her current position as an Assistant Professor of Practice at Relay Graduate School of Education.
While at Haverford College, Sam was in the starting pitching rotation for the women’s softball team and was a tri-captain her senior year. She still ranks among the top three pitchers in program history with a 2.43 career ERA.
Sam went on to become the bullpen coach for Haverford Softball for 5 years. Three of her pitchers ascended the program ranks and became All-Centennial Conference performers under Sam’s guidance and two were named to Regional All-Tournament teams. Haverford set a new program record with a team ERA of 1.86 during the 2014 Centennial Conference Championship season. To date, three of Haverford’s top four team ERAs came in the 2013 through 2015 seasons under her watch. The lone exception to that group is Sam’s senior season when she was part of a staff that broke the then-school record mark for team ERA. During Sam’s time with Haverford Softball, the team boasted 2 Centennial Conference Championships, 1 Regional Championship and 1 Super Regional appearance.
Current Gill St. Bernards Varsity Softball Coach and form Mendham Township Middle School Softball and basketball coach where he has been to the county final in softball the last 4 years, winning 2 championships. Also recently worked as on field trainer and assistant coach for NJ Venom(Since 2013), developing players ages 12U to 18U. Prior to that was head coach and founder of Mendham Mavericks 14U team compiling a record 133-28 in 4 seasons while also winning several regional tournaments.
Coach Surella’s gets the most out of players by building on their strengths through positive communication and improving the challenging parts of their game through repetitive and sometime innovative drills. He is passionate about the game and believes effort and energy are essential to overcoming obstacles.
A resident of Long Valley where he lives with his son, daughter and labradoodle ‘Maverick’. Coach Surella volunteers his time as treasurer of both Mendham High School softball and basketball booster clubs along with being President of Mendham Patriot Basketball.
Kelly Buck was a multi-award winning 4-year Varsity player for Roxbury High School who continued her softball career with William Paterson College. After completing her degree, Kelly went on to coaching softball at the High School level starting at her Alma Mater and then moving on to Mt. Olive High School where she was the Head JV Softball Coach for 4 years and then assistant Varsity Coach for 3 years. Additionally, Kelly has been a Physical Education teacher at Mt Olive Middle School since 2012.
Kelly has been training and instructing softball athletes of all ages for many years and comes to In The Zone with a wealth of knowledge. She has expertise in a variety of areas including hitting, catching, defense and fastpitch.
The highest level of D1 softball is, by all accounts, equivalent to the Major Leagues for baseball. Lexi Davis is a part of that elite level of college softball and has the background and accolades that come with it. Lexi played a pivotal role with the Auburn Tigers from 2012 to 2016.
* 2-Time SEC Champion (2015 & 2016)
* WCWS Runner-Up (2016)
* WCWS Semi-finalist (2015)
* Broke the Auburn Career Wins Record (2016)
* NFCA All-America Scholar-Athlete (2016)
* Chi Alpha Sigma: National Student Athlete Honor Society Member (2016)
* ESPN National Player of the Year (2012)
* Gatorade State Player of the Year (NC, 2012)
* North Carolina 4A State Champion MVP (2012)
Lexi stayed heavily involved with the game she has played her entire life. After she graduated from Auburn, she brought her skills and experience to Charlotte Christian High School and Furman University as an assistant coach in 2017 & 2018. During that time she was the associate head coach for a local club program and provided private instruction at facilities in the area.
Originally from Charlotte, NC, Lexi has a Master’s in Adult Education and a Bachelor’s in Political Science. She is planning to pursue a 2nd Master’s in Exercise Science in 2021.
