Ninth Annual Christie Serino Baseball Classic set for today in Malden

Field includes host MHS, East Boston, Somerville High and Greater Lawrence Tech

  Christie Serino is one of the most influential and most revered coaches and mentors in the region’s history on the high school and college sports scene. He coached hockey at Saugus High, the University of New Hampshire, Merrimack College and Malden Catholic as well as baseball for many of his five sons’ teams through their growing years – as well as being the former head baseball coach at the University of New Hampshire. Coach Serino steered Saugus High to two boys hockey State Championships – its only state titles in any sports – as well as two Super 8 State Hockey Championships at Malden Catholic in 2011 and 2012.

  Locally and across the region, many mourned his untimely passing in October 2012 from a battle with cancer while he was serving as athletic director and head hockey coach at Malden Catholic High School. He was only 62.

  In 2021, Coach Serino and his family received a tremendous honor when the new football and track stadium at the newly built Saugus High School was dedicated in his honor. Today in Malden, for the ninth time, the late Coach Serino’s legacy will be honored again with the playing of the Ninth Annual Christie Serino Baseball Classic, where four teams will compete for the 2023 Championship. The Serino Classic originated in 2014 – first hosted by Saugus High School – Coach Serino’s alma mater, and has been held continuously since then, except for 2020, when it was sidelined along with the entire rest of the high school season in 2020.

  Today, the Malden High School Golden Tornado baseball squad will host the Doubleheader action on two adjoining Malden fields, Maplewood Park and Rotondi Field, beginning at 10:00 a.m. with first-round action. The Championship on one of the fields, Maplewood Park, features the two first-round winners, with a Consolation Game on the adjacent field. Malden High will play the Greater Lawrence Tech Reggies at 10:00 a.m. at Rotondi Field in one first-round matchup, while Somerville High and East Boston High will face off at 10:00 a.m. at Maplewood Park.

  Coach Freker said it has been an honor to memorialize Coach Serino all of these years. “He was a leader and mentor to hundreds of athletes and coaches. There is really no one in this region who has made such an impact on so many lives in the high school and college ranks,” said Coach Freker, who is now in his seventh year at Malden High, his second time around as head baseball coach of his alma mater.

  He was the head baseball coach at Saugus High from 2014-2016 and head baseball coach at Malden Catholic from 2000-2012, all of the years Coach Serino was Athletic Director. He coached baseball at Malden High from 1985-1999 previously, this being the 39th year coaching high school baseball for Coach Freker, who was inducted into the Bro. Daniel Cremin Malden Catholic Hall of Fame in March of this year, Mass. State High School Coaches (MBCA) Hall of Fame in 2016 and the Malden High Golden Tornado Hall of Fame in 2007.

  While at Malden Catholic, Freker served under Serino, who was athletic director at the time, and also coached two of Coach Serino’s sons, Nick and Anthony. Both of the sons were D-1 scholarship baseball players at UMass-Amherst. Nick Serino went on to the professional ranks with the Toronto Blue Jays organization, one of eight professional MLB baseball players from Malden Catholic from 2003-2012.

  “We started the Serino Classic in 2014 at Saugus High and it was such a big success we brought it to Malden High when we returned here,” Freker said.

  Malden Mayor Gary Christenson has attended all the tournaments held in Malden since 2017 and was expected to deliver the first pitch today.

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Serino Classic History

Held in Saugus

2014 Saugus

2015 Saugus

2016 Saugus

Held in Malden

2017 Malden HS

2018 Malden HS

2019 East Boston

2020 No classic – COVID-19

2021 Winthrop

2022 East Boston