George Capen joined the Georgetown baseball program in March 2021 and serves as the team’s pitching coach.
GU had one of the most successful seasons in program history in 2024 as Georgetown posted a 36-21 record, marking the most wins in a single season in program history. The Hoyas made their third-consecutive appearance in the BIG EAST Championships, another first in program history. GU then continued to shatter records winning two games in the tournament knocking out both UConn and Xavier en route to the programs first ever appearance in the BIG EAST Championship game. Prior to the championships, GU had two pitchers earn all-conference honors with Everett Catlett earning a nod to the first team and Cody Bowker earning a spot on the second team. The Hoya pitching staff was vital to the team’s success as GU set records in wins (36), saves (22), pickoffs (19) and shutouts (5). GU posted a .251 batting average against which was good for second in program history, 434 strikeouts which ranks fourth most in a season and posted a 4.69 ERA which is the eighth best in a single season. Under Capen’s leadership, GU had seven individual records set in 2024 for the second-consecutive season. Everett Catlett and Marcello Mastroianni both had six wins (seventh most in a single season), Catlett had 84 strikeouts (seventh most), Nick Davis had 10 saves (fourth most), Andrew Citron had a 2.45 ERA (eighth best), Bowker posted an 11.06 strikeouts per nine innings (seventh best) and Citron held opponents to a .169 batting average (third best). The Hoya pitching staff earned nine BIG EAST weekly honors over the course of the season which was tied for the most in the conference. GU was also nationally ranked inside the top-45 in ERA (4.69), saves (22), pickoffs (19), shutouts (5), hits per nine innings (8.49), batting average against (.251) and WHIP (1.45). Under Capen’s tutelage, GU posted the best conference ERA in the country with a 2.76 in BIG EAST action. Georgetown finished the year ranked #59 in the RPI which is the highest-ranking season ending RPI in program history. Catlett went on to be drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the twelfth round of the 2024 MLB Draft, marking the second year in a row that the Hoyas had the highest draft pick out of the BIG EAST.
2023 was another record setting year for Capen and the Hoyas. GU went 30-27 on the season marking the first time in program history the team posted back-to-back 30-win seasons. GU also won its first ever BIG EAST Championships game over Seton Hall. This was the first time since 1985-86 that the Hoyas posted back-to-back winning seasons and it was the first time in program history that GU made back-to-back BIG EAST Championship appearances. Over the course of the season, GU set what were at the time, many records on the mound. The Hoya pitching staff compiled 30 wins (second most in program history), 473 strikeouts (second in program history), 16 saves (first in program history at the time), five shutouts (most in program history), 8.66 strikeouts per nine innings (second best all-time), posted a .262 batting average against (third best) and a 5.02 ERA which ranked 10th in program history. GU also set the NCAA Division I record for strikeouts in a three-game series with 49 against Dayton. On top of setting many records as a staff, GU saw Jake Bloss win BIG EAST Pitcher of the Year and was the unanimous selection after a dominating season which saw Bloss win First Team All-BIG EAST, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week, Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Second Team All-American and NCBWA/Rawlings Third Team All-American. Bloss would go on to be drafted by the Houston Astros 99th overall in the third round of the 2023 MLB Draft becoming the Hoyas highest draft pick in program history. GU also had Andrew Williams win College Baseball Newspaper National Player of the Week during the season. The Blue & Gray tallied eight BIG EAST Weekly Honors which led the conference with five pitcher of the week selections and three honor roll selections. Under Capen’s tutelage, GU set seven single-season individual pitching records. Bloss tallied eight wins good for second most in a season, the graduate student also tallied 97 strikeouts which is good for second most in a season and posted an 11.27 strikeouts per nine innings which is good for fifth all-time. Tyler Mead secured seven saves on the mound which was good for ninth, Jordan Yoder made 29 appearances which ranks third most in a season, Garret Keough made 26 appearances and posted a 15.21 strikeouts per nine innings moving him into sixth in program history and first in program history in those categories.
In 2022, Capen was a member of the program’s first BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year and helped elevate the Hoya pitchers to new heights highlighted by unanimous All-BIG EAST First Team selection Nolan McCarthy, who became just the fourth pitcher in program history to make the conference’s top team. GU pitchers registered a conference weekly accolade in 10 of 14 weeks, including three Pitcher of the Week performances and a national Pitcher of the Week. Capen guided the Hoyas to 13 team and individual single-season marks inside the program’s top-10, including team wins (32 - 1st), strikeouts (453 - 2nd), saves (13 - 3rd) and strikeouts per nine innings (8.24 - 3rd) to go along with Angelo Tonas breaking the program record with 30 appearances and freshman Andrew Williams (.167) and senior Anthony Redfern (.194) ranking second and third, respectively, in opposing batting average. His staff combined for 19 outings with 10 or more strikeouts while seeing significant improvement in several statistical categories.
In his first season on the Hilltop, Capen helped the 2021 Georgetown pitching staff to the program's second-best single-season strikeouts per nine innings average with 8.23 and fourth in batting average against with a .263 mark in his first season. The Hoya pitching coach assisted in the development of Carter Bosch, who held the fifth-best mark in Division I with 4.88 hits allowed per nine and eighth in batting average against with .152, setting a program record in that category. Capen's ace also posted the second-best strikeouts per nine frames in a season-mark with 11.78. Bosch also currently ranks second in program history with 10.84 strikeouts per nine innings.
Angelo Tonas, who earned a BIG EAST Pitcher of the Week honor following a dominant outing against BIG EAST foe St. John's in April 2021, also worked under the Hoya Pitching Coach. Capen also worked to put five of the team's seven returning Division I pitchers with over 10 innings tossed on the map with career-best marks in ERA by season's end.
Capen joins the Hoyas after spending the last three seasons as a member of the coaching staff at Holy Cross – his alma mater. He was the program’s pitching coach during the abbreviated 2020 season when, despite playing just 15 games, the Crusaders’ pitching staff was on pace to surpass previous seasons' totals in several statistical categories. Holy Cross pitchers earned Patriot League weekly honors in three of the four weeks.
During the summer of 2020, Capen served as a head coach in the Newport Collegiate Baseball League. His team, Paul Bailey’s Blue Crew, led the league in team batting average and gave up the least amount of runs.
Capen served as a volunteer assistant at Holy Cross for the 2018-19 seasons. In 2019, he helped lead a pair of pitchers to All-Patriot League First Team selections - the first time in program history that Holy Cross has had two starting pitchers earn first-team honors. The Crusaders ranked second in the Patriot League in conference ERA (3.74) and were the only team to have three different pitchers earn Patriot League Pitcher of the Week honors. With 383 strikeouts, the team tallied the second-most strikeouts in program history, while Liam Dvorak recorded the most strikeouts by a pitcher in a single season since 1925 (83). Declan Cronin was selected in the 36th round of the 2019 MLB Draft by the Chicago White Sox.
Upon graduation from Holy Cross, Capen signed a professional contract with the Seattle Mariners in 2017. He played with the team's Arizona League affiliate in Peoria in his first pro season. After spending 2018 Spring Training with the Mariners, Capen had a brief stint with the Southern Illinois Miners of the Frontier League before returning to Holy Cross to join the coaching staff.
Capen was a standout reliever for Holy Cross for four seasons, finishing his career with the most pitching appearances in school history (99). He also ranks seventh all-time in career saves (5) and held a career record of 14-5 on the mound – the most wins by a relief pitcher in program history – including a 7-1 record during his senior year. In 2017, Capen earned wins in the final game of the Patriot League Championship, the Crusaders’ victory over No. 25 Nebraska in the NCAA Tournament, and also made an appearance in the first game of the NCAA Tournament against No. 1 Oregon State.
Capen was an All-Patriot League selection and earned the team’s Perry Conlon Award as Holy Cross’ Most Outstanding Pitcher in 2017. Over the course of his career, Capen posted a 3.98 ERA in 167.1 innings pitched, including a 3.15 ERA in 2016.
In summer league play, Capen spent two seasons with the Ocean State Waves, posting a 2.53 ERA in 2015 and 2.08 ERA in 2016. He was named the first-ever captain for the Waves in 2016 and would go on to set an organization record with 33 career pitching appearances. In 2016, he joined the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League at the end of the summer and did not allow an earned run in 8.1 innings.
During his senior year at Holy Cross, Capen also played one varsity season of soccer as a goalkeeper for the Crusaders. He received a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Holy Cross in 2017 and a master's degree in sports leadership from Northeastern in 2021.
