University of North Georgia (UNG) baseball head coach Tom Cantrell won his 900th game of his career Feb. 7 when the Nighthawks defeated Peach Belt Conference opponent Claflin University 4-0.
Cantrell has won 723 of those games as head coach at UNG, where he is in his 21st season after relaunching the program in 2000. He previously won 177 games in four seasons as head coach at Perimeter College at Georgia State University, which was DeKalb Junior College at the time.
His Nighthawks have won three of the past five Peach Belt Conference regular-season championships, and Cantrell's UNG teams have tallied 40-win seasons six times in his tenure. His team won 57 games, the most in his tenure, in 2005 and reached the NCAA Division II Championship round in 2017.
Cantrell has been recognized for his success on the field and for the impact he has had shaping and mentoring young men by being inducted into the Georgia Dugout Club's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2016. He has been named his conference's Coach of the Year six times. Cantrell was the NCAA Division II Southeast Region Coach of the Year in 2015 and 2017.
