The Saint Joseph's baseball program will host its annual Lead-Off Dinner and Hall of Fame Induction on Saturday, February 1, 2025 at the Marriott Philadelphia West in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania.
 
The newest inductees into the Saint Joseph's Baseball Hall of Fame will be Mike Mangano '92 and Brian O'Keefe.  Longtime communications staffer Joe Greenwich will receive the Harry Booth '62 Award, while the 2024 team award winners will be honored and the 2025 squad will be introduced.
 
Mangano ranked among the Hawks' all-time leaders in games started during his career, taking the ball 41 times on the mound with 31 starts.  An Atlantic 10 All-Academic Team selection as a senior in 1992, he made his final season in the Crimson and Gray his best, leading the team with seven wins, 73 and two-thirds innings pitched, 78 strikeouts, and a sparkling 1.83 earned run average.
 
Hailing from Pitman, New Jersey, Mangano graduated second in program history with 181 career strikeouts, third all-time with 15 victories, and fourth all-time with 13 complete games.  He still occupies a place in the top 10 in all three of those categories, ranking sixth in complete games and ninth in both wins and strikeouts.
 
O'Keefe was a force both at the plate and behind it, earning First Team All-Atlantic 10 honors in 2014 after being tabbed for the Second Team a season earlier and earned Philadelphia All-Big 5 selections in each of his seasons on Hawk Hill.  He was also one of 15 semifinalists for what is now known as the Buster Posey Award for the top catcher in collegiate baseball as a junior when he threw out more than 44% of baserunners attempting to steal.
 
A native of Albany, New York, O'Keefe was selected by the St. Louis Cardinals in the seventh round of the 2014 MLB Draft; he went on to join the Seattle Mariners organization and became the fourth Hawk baseball player to appear in a Major League game, collecting his first Major League hit on October 1, 2022.
 
For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.SJUHawks.com/LeadOffDinner.  The cost is $155 – $130 for Young Alumni – for registrations prior to December 31 and $200 thereafter; the cost includes a cocktail reception at 6:00 p.m. followed by dinner at 7:00 p.m.  Registration closes on January 23.  Sponsorship opportunities are available and are critical to the success of the event; please visit www.SJUHawks.com/LeadOffDinner or contact JD Noey at jnoey@sju.edu.  Net proceeds from the Lead-Off Dinner directly support the baseball program.