Bottom of the ninth, 7-6 Los Angeles Dodgers. Right-hand pitcher Walker Bueler stares down New York Yankees left fielder Alex Verdugo at the plate. 1-2 count.
Breaking ball, strike three swinging — the Dodgers are world champions.
And hitting coordinator and Quinnipiac baseball alum Louis Iannotti ‘16 gets his second ring in four years.
“The first one is just sitting in a box in my closet, and I’m sure the second one will be right next to it until we have a cool place to have it,” Iannotti said.
That same Iannotti surely didn’t expect to have two World Series rings collecting dust in his closet when he transferred from Siena to Quinnipiac in 2013. The sophomore catcher from North Haven wasn’t expecting to ever be coaching. He thought he’d be playing.
“I tore my labrum,” Iannotti said. “So I was hurt, and I obviously knew the staff there. My dad attended Quinnipiac and played there, so I had a connection with the school. I just reached out and it all just kind of lined up perfectly.”
Iannotti’s father, Lou, played for the Bobcats from 1978-1982, leading his team to their first NCAA Tournament as a Division II program. At the end of his senior campaign, Lou was a Division II All-New England All-Star Team selection and was inducted into the Quinnipiac Athletics Hall of Fame in 2010.
The duo not only share Quinnipiac baseball, they’re also the first father and son to be coached by former skipper and athletics Hall of Famer Dan Gooley, who managed the Bobcats for 24 seasons and is now the director of operations.
“We’ve known Dan for 46 years,” Lisa Iannotti, administrative assistant for Quinnipiac Athletics said. “You’re not going to meet a more humble human being than Dan. I mean, we love him. He’s our family.”
Louis’s mother and Lou’s wife, Lisa, has worked at Quinnipiac for the last 12 years. Initially, she was involved in Development and Alumni Affairs but transitioned to her current position in 2018.
“We have an affinity for Quinnipiac in athletics and I love the administrative staff and coaches,” Lisa said. “They’re a second family to me.”
So much so that the Iannotti’s still regularly have dinner dates with Lou’s old teammates — including one this past weekend.
“You know, it’s not just about baseball, it’s about the friends that you make and the experiences that you (have),” Lisa said.
“I grew up going and remember going to alumni games with my dad,” Louis said. “My dad is very close with a group of guys that he played with still to this day. A lot of them live in the area. It was cool to share the same connection.”
“I have pictures of my son playing on this field with my husband’s helmet on,” Lisa said. “It was pretty cool to see (Louis) come back, following my husband’s footsteps, but yet, it was a path that he chose.”
Like his father before him, Louis’s tenure in Hamden was quite memorable for him and the program. Ahead of his junior season, current head coach John Delaney entered his inaugural year at the helm.
“He was pretty intense in a good way, like holding you accountable,” Louis said. “And I just think that people respect that when you play for somebody like that, who holds himself to a high standard, and then he holds everyone else to a high standard.”
Through 152 games, Louis posted a .272 batting average with 151 hits. He was also a NEIBA All-New England Third Teamer during his senior season (2015-16).
Then came the real world. In 2017, Iannotti signed with the Gateway Grizzlies, an independent baseball team in the Frontier League. But his career was short-lived, plagued by a career-ending injury.
“I was training again to play, and thought that I was going to be playing again with another (independent) ball team,” Louis said.
Instead, he got a phone call.
Louis’s childhood friend and best man Eric Yavarone — who also happens to be the Dodgers’ strength coach — said Los Angeles was hiring coaches in its lower minor league department.
“He called and said, ‘Hey, I know that they are interviewing for a coach that was in our low-A team,’” he said. “‘Would you be interested in coaching?’”
The rest is self-explanatory; a polished resume and a detailed interview process later and there you have it: Iannotti became a coach for the Dodgers High-A affiliate Great Lakes Loons in 2018. A year later, he transitioned to a role based in Arizona — where he currently resides — traveling through LA’s minor league teams and working with hitters.
“He was very driven and determined to make baseball a career,” Lisa said. “So I think when he didn’t get drafted, this was the next best thing for him.”
Last season, Louis moved up to the Dodgers’ double-A team, the Tulsa Drillers, as their hitting coach. Prior to the 2024 slate, he was named one of two hitting coordinators for the Dodgers, overseeing “all things related to hitting and hitters in the organization.”
So where is the crossover between the minors and the MLB? Well, Louis’s job is to prepare hitters in the minors for the show, but he also works directly with current players who bounce up and down through the system.
During spring training, Louis and a second hitting coordinator, Brett Pill, help familiar names like Shohei Ohtani or Mookie Betts among other major leaguers on the Dodgers roster. Occasionally, he’ll oversee the team during a homestand as well. But for a majority of the 162-game stretch, Louis travels through the minor league levels of the organization.
“We have a bunch of different things that are able to help them,” Louis said. “Their biomechanics, numbers, video, and when we see stuff start going awry, we use those resources to see, ‘Hey, are they moving differently? Are they hurt? What sorts of things have changed from when they were good, and what sorts of levers can we pull on to try and get them back?’”
This role becomes all the more important in a postseason scenario. Take October 2024 as an example.
“Before the postseason started, we went to LA and for four or five days, we had a group of guys that were in what they call a ‘stay hot camp,’” Louis said. “These are guys that could potentially be called upon to be activated to play in any of the postseason or World Series games.”
It’s been an unusual ride for Ionnatti, who went from a kid trying to make a name for himself on the diamond to jumping full force into professional baseball as a hitting coach.
A single phone call can change your life any which way; Louis is reaping the benefits.
“It’s pretty special,” Louis said. “You know, getting to work for an organization in professional baseball is cool, but I think the Dodgers have just a little bit more history than a lot of the teams out there.”
Well Louis, you’re part of that history yet again.
