Eastern Connecticut State University

Kyle Sylvester returns to the staff of head coach Mike Odenwaelder and will serve as hitting coach and infield coordinator while also overseeing player development and assisting with recruiting and game day scouting.
 
In his first year at Eastern, Sylvester has coached multiple All American, All Region and All Conference players. His offense owned a batting average over .300 last season. In the summer of 2024, Sylvester was an assistant coach for the Harwich Mariners of the prestigious Cape Cod League. He led the Mariners to their first title since the 2011 season. 
 
A native of Hanover, MA, Sylvester played five seasons (2019-23) as a utility infielder under veteran coach Mark Woodworth at Division III Wesleyan University. As a three-year starter at the corner infield positions, Sylvester was in the starting lineup for 80 of his 82 career games for the Cardinals.
 
In his career, Sylvester batted .296 with 83 hits, 58 RBI and 59 runs with a .979 fielding percentage on 336 chances. As a graduate student in the spring of 2023, Sylvester batted a career-high .328 with three home runs and 32 RBI for the 17-19 Cardinals, who earned an opening-round home series in the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) tournament after claiming their first NESCAC West Division regular-season championship since 2016.
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At Wesleyan, Sylvester’s teams also won the 2022 Little Three championship for the first time since 2016 with a combined 4-2 record against Amherst College and Williams College.
 
Sylvester qualified for the NESCAC All-Academic Team and for a departmental scholar-athlete award as a two-time team captain in 2022 and 2023, won the MacNaughten Award (given each year since 1961) as a graduate student in 2023 for outstanding baseball achievement.
 
Sylvester’s coaching resume includes nine years as a summer baseball camp instructor and six years giving private hitting and pitching lessons at South Shore Baseball Club in Hingham, MA.
 
In the summers of 2022 and 2023, Sylvester served as head coach for the Hanover Senior American Legion baseball team. In 2022, he led Hanover to the District 10 finals for the first time since 2008 and for the second time in town history. That year, he was nominated to coach the South Region at the Massachusetts American Legion All-Star Game. In 2023 under Sylvester, Hanover reached the district semifinals.
 
Additionally, Sylvester has been a player-coach for the Scituate (MA) Shark Dawgs in the Cranberry Baseball League (CBL), where he led the team to the CBL semifinals in 2022.
 
Sylvester holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Chemistry from Wesleyan.