Karen Salerno attended all of B.J.’s high school games and most of his college games at NCAA Division I St. Bonaventure University just outside Olean.

She now lives in Olean near her son, B.J.’s wife Jenny, and his son, 5-month-old Lofton.

Named after B.J.’s all-time favorite baseball player, Kenny Lofton, of course.

When Lofton grows up, he could very well play for St. Bonaventure, like his father did, and where B.J. has recently been named interim head coach.

After a four-year playing career at St. Bonaventure, B.J. Salerno has served as an assistant coach for the past nine years. Submitted photo

“What made me fall in love with the game when I was younger would be my mom,” said B.J., a former standout catcher and 2005 graduate of Warren Area High School. “She is a big baseball fan and a big Pittsburgh Pirates fan. We would always have baseball games on TV and she got me involved early.

“I don’t know exactly what made me good at the game,” he said. “I just remember playing baseball all the time. During the summers, there was no travel ball. You played Little League, junior legion, legion and high school ball. So, during the summers, all my buddies would get together at Mulberry Playground and play pickup games. Ever since I can remember, like every little kid, I always wanted to play in the pros. So when I got old enough, I knew I wanted to play in college and hopefully beyond.”

As a catcher, Salerno helped lead the Bonnies to the Atlantic 10 Tournament three consecutive seasons from 2006-08. He was also a part of the 2006 A-10 runner-up team. He started 152 consecutive games behind the plate and was a senior co-captain.

“My early influences would be, of course, my mom. She would practice with me when I was little,” said Salerno. “Next would be my Little League coach, Jeff Frailey. I was friends with his son, Jeffery, and he was my all-star coach. Along with him would be Randy Weidert. I was friends with his son, Greg, and he was always coaching us during all-stars as well. My high school coach, Jeff Passaro, certainly had an influence on me. The major influence in teaching and coaching would be Coach Sudbrook.”

St. Bonaventure University baseball coach Larry Sudbrook, the winningest coach in school history for any sport, announced that he will retire effective Dec. 31.

Sudbrook has led the Bonnies baseball program for the past 36 seasons after arriving at St. Bonaventure in 1985.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to coach at St. Bonaventure University,” Sudbrook said. “I’m unbelievably lucky to have a job that I’ve loved and to love coming to work every day. I’ve always coached with an edge and I’ve expected my players to play with an edge. When you lose that edge you want to do what is best for the program and make sure that the guys have a chance to play for someone who also has that edge.”

Through the past nearly four decades, Sudbrook has left an indelible mark on both Bonnies baseball and St. Bonaventure. He will call it a career after leading the Bonnies to 725 victories, a mark that stands as the most by any A-10 baseball coach in conference history. His 321 conference wins stand among the all-time A-10 leaders as well. His win totals easily represent the most victories by any coach in the history of St. Bonaventure athletics. One of his crowning achievements came in 2004 when Sudbrook guided the Bonnies to their only baseball Atlantic 10 championship in school history on the way to a spot in the NCAA Tournament.

“I felt that now is the right time to move on,” said Sudbrook. “This is Coach Salerno’s ninth year with the program and he is the best hire I’ve ever made. He is more than ready to take over and be a head coach. He will not miss a beat in keeping the program going in the right direction.”

Salerno credits Sudbrook for his start in coaching.

“My senior year at St. Bonaventure, I broke my middle knuckle on my throwing hand off a foul tip when I was catching,” said Salerno. “That basically ended my college playing career. We had a freshman catcher that took over for me. Coach Sudbrook allowed me to call pitches for him the rest of the year and teach him how to call a game at the collegiate level. So being around Coach Sudbrook in the dugout and seeing how he coached and managed the game made me want to stay around the game I love and get into coaching.

“My time under Coach Sudbrook has been tremendous,” said Salerno. “As a player, he demanded the very best out of you. If you didn’t perform to what he thought you were capable of, he would let you know it. He was a hard-nosed coach that you respected. My time as his assistant coach, I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor than him. He’s a great baseball mind and I felt like I learned something new from him every day. I have learned how to manage the game, the players, and the day-to-day operations of a college baseball program. After working with him for nine years and playing for him for four, he has been a great coach, fantastic mentor and a friend. Most of my coaching style is similar to Coach Sudbrook. As I mentioned before, I have learned a lot from him over the year, so there is a lot of Coach Sudbrook in me.

“My responsibilities as the assistant coach the last nine years have been recruiting, in charge of the pitchers and their practice and development, scouting reports, lots of fungos and throwing BP, and a lot of little things that the team needed to make a college season run smoothly,” he said. “Moving forward, my responsibilities won’t change a whole lot, but now I will be the one managing the games. Lineups, pitching changes, defensive replacements, when to bunt, steal, hit and run, etc., will now be my responsibility.”

With Salerno on staff, the Bonnies were far and away the Atlantic 10’s top pitching staff statistically in 2016, recording a 2.79 team earned run average. That total ranked first in the A-10 by over a full run and fourth in all of Division I. Sophomore Brandon Schlimm was named Second-Team All-Atlantic 10 while senior and Frewsburg native Connor Grey set Bona’s all-time season record for strikeouts with 95 and was drafted in the 20th round of the MLB Draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks following the season.

In 2017, Salerno oversaw the development of junior Aaron Phillips who became St. Bonaventure’s second player to earn Atlantic 10 Pitcher of the Year honors after going 9-1 with a 2.77 ERA and was drafted in the ninth round of the MLB Draft by the San Francisco Giants. Eisenhower High School graduate and Russell-native Casey Vincent, and fellow freshman Donovan Moffat were each named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team as well. In all, the Bonnies ranked fourth in the A-10 with a staff ERA of 4.03.

In 2019, the Bonnies pitching staff set a program record for season strikeouts with 344.

During Salerno’s time on staff, he has helped recruit and oversee multiple All-Americans. During the four-year stretch between 2017 and 2020, the Bonnies had an All-American selection each year: Phillips (2017 ABCA Third Team All-America), outfielder Sam Fuller (2018 CoSIDA Academic All-America Third Team, 2019 First Team) and outfielder Brendyn Stillman (2020 Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Second Team All-America). Following the 2021 season, outfielder Tyler Kelder was named Atlantic 10 All-Conference while pitcher Moffat and shortstop Branden Myers were selected to the A-10 All-Academic Team.

Before joining the Bonnies, B.J. was an assistant baseball coach at Jamestown Community College.

Following Sudbrook’s announcement, St. Bona named Salerno interim head coach for the 2022 season and reported a national search would begin to find a full-time successor.

“Yes, becoming the permanent head coach is the goal,” said Salerno. “Not many people can say they are the head coach at the place they played college baseball. That would be a great honor.

“Most of my family and my wife’s family are just down the road in Warren and Jamestown, New York. I know and love this area and have put our roots down here,” Salerno added. “It certainly gives me a chance to become the permanent head coach. Once you’ve played this game, that’s what you are, you’re a ball player. This game has a way of connecting with you and shapes you into becoming who you are.

“I’m excited about this opportunity and hope to do it as long as Coach Sudbrook,” Salerno said. “He has said it before and he is right, there is no better job than coming to the ballpark and coaching baseball.”