Our Staff of Baseball Trainers & Softball Trainers

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.

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.

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.

TJ Locatelli is a current coach at Bernards HS which was his alma mater where he played under ITZ’s Team Development Director, Jeff Falzarano. After Bernards, TJ continued his baseball career at Kean University where he finished with a 1.41 ERA.

TJ resides in Morristown, NJ and is currently a teacher at Borough School in Morris Plains in addition to his coaching role at Bernards High School.

Anthony Carida was a All-Conference SS/P selection and Conference Champion during his time at Hackettstown High School. He continued his playing career first at Sussex County Community College (SCCC) and then at McDaniel College in Maryland as a CF/P. While still in school, he coached youth baseball camps for the New York Yankees and was a 14u assistant coach for the Tiger Baseball Club. In 2020, Anthony returned to SCCC as an assistant coach where he primarily works with outfielders and hitters as well as running the team’s velocity development and strength and conditioning programs.