MARTHA'S VINEYARD, Mass. – Suffolk baseball assistant coach Jhonneris Mendez led the Martha Vineyard Sharks to a banner season with the franchise's first New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) Fay Vincent Cup over the weekend.  

Mendez, who was in his fourth season with the Sharks' as skipper, guided the squad to its first-ever NECBL Championship as the fourth seed, first wildcard team.  

The Sharks looked to be out of the race through the first 15 games of the season as they sat one game under .500 (7-8). The tide turned in the team's favor from there as the squad won 22 of the last 29 regular-season outings including an 8-2 ledger over the last 10 games to clinch a spot in the postseason.  

Martha's Vineyard was the hottest team entering the playoffs and it did not cool off.  

In the winner-take-all wild card contest, the Sharks walked off against the fifth-seed Mystic Schooners, 6-5, in 11 innings to advance to the semis against the second-seed Bristol Blues.  

In the best-of-three semis, the Sharks swept the Blues, outscoring Bristol, 23-7, to punch their ticket to the NECBL championship series for the second time in franchise history, first since 2019 when Martha Vineyard finished as the runner-up to the Keene Swamp Bats.  

In game one of the championship series, the Sharks crushed the regular-season champion Vermont Mountaineers, 16-3, on the road. A day later, at The Shark Tank in Martha's Vineyard, a two-run homer by Logan Chambers in the bottom of the eighth pushed Vineyard ahead for good, 7-6, to send the franchise to its first Fay Vincent Cup, which is named after former commissioner of Major League Baseball Fay Vincent, who served as the president of the NECBL from 1998 to 2004.            

Mendez is no stranger to winning ways. With the Sharks alone the 2019 NECBL Joel Cooney Manager of the Year has led the team to a share of the Future's Collegiate Baseball League title in 2018 and has amassed 130 victories (130-72-1). At Suffolk, the double Ram and former Mutt, has been on the sideline of three GNAC Championships (2016, 2017, 2018) and over 100 wins (109-69).  

A regular in summer coaching circles, Mendez earned his first head coaching role with the Seacoast Mavericks of The Futures League (FCBL) in 2017 after helping the squad to its winningest season, 36-18, in the team's history in 2016 as an assistant. That year, Mendez and the Mavericks qualified for the postseason and made a semifinal run. 

Mendez's summer ball resume also includes an assistant coaching gig for the FCBL Team versus Team USA in 2017 where he worked on Worcester Bravehearts Manager J.P. Pyne's staff coaching the FCBL hand-picked roster to compete against Team USA's Collegiate National Team. 

At the collegiate level, Mendez, who returned to Anthony Del Prete's staff in 2022 after a three-year hiatus spent alongside Paul Bortolotti at Curry, he has built nearly a decade of coaching experience that features stints at MIT and Northern Essex Community College. 

Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Mendez spent four years as a two-way guy for the Rams. He earned first-team all-conference honors in the GNAC in 2012, Division III Baseball National Player of the Week in that same season and Suffolk University Athlete of the Year accolades a year later. Mendez was also a member of Suffolk's men's basketball team in 2012-13 and served on the NCAA National Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) from January 2013 to May 2014. 

Baseball Mendez Wins NECBL Fay Vincent Cup