Waynesburg University Athletics

Perry Cunningham concluded his third season as the head coach and 17th year overall with the Waynesburg University baseball team in 2024.

The Jackets returned to the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament for the first time since 2019 during the 2024 campaign. Waynesburg matched its single-season program record with 23 victories and tied for second in the conference standings with a 15-5, matching the highest conference winning percentage (.750) in team history. The Jackets had five players collect all-conference honors, the most for the squad since 2014. 

During his decade-plus with the Jackets, Cunningham worked closely with the Waynesburg pitching staff, including Brian Resnik, who was named PAC Pitcher of the Year in 2016 as a senior and PAC Co-Pitcher of the Year in 2015 as a junior. Resnik was also a three-time first-team All-PAC selection. Mason Miller, a 2020 graduate and four-year member of the Jackets, went on to anchor the staff at Division I Gardner-Webb as a graduate student. Following his one year at G-W, Miller went on to be drafted by the Oakland Athletics in 2021. 

Miller rocketed through the minor league ranks and made his Major League Debut on April 19, 2023, with a start against the Chicago Cubs. Over 4.1 innings of work, he allowed just two hits on four hits and a walk with five strikeouts. The 6-5, 200-plus-pound righty was named the MLB’s American League Reliever of the Month for the opening month of the 2024 season after recording eight saves and striking out 29 in 14.1 innings. 

Cunningham made a cross-country trip on May 2, 2023, to watch his former star righty toss seven no-hit innings against the Seattle Mariners, before being pulled for a relief pitcher. He walked four and struck out six in the memorable performance.

Other players under Cunningham's coaching guidance that have gone on to continue their playing days after graduation include Tyler Srbinovich (Mahoning Valley Scrappers of the MLB Draft League), Tyler Reis (New Jersey Jackals of the Frontier League) and Ty Wickline (Carolina Yankees of the Southern Shores Professional League). 

Cunningham himself sports an impressive baseball resume that includes a long and very successful stint in the Frontier League.
 
After spending 2003 in the Northeast League as a member of the Allentown Ambassadors, Cunningham was signed by the Chillicothe (Ohio) Paints of the Frontier League. From 2004 to 2007, the Steubenville, Ohio, native enjoyed one of the finest careers ever by a Frontier League pitcher. He compiled a career record of 37-21, with a career 3.54 ERA over 497.2 innings pitched and 78 starts. At the time of his retirement from baseball, Cunningham ranked second in league history in wins (37), starts (76) and innings pitched (497.2).
 
While with the Paints, Cunningham also gave individual and small group instruction at Triple Crown Sports in Chillicothe for two years.

After putting together a long, distinguished professional career that was highlighted by consistency, toughness and results, he was immortalized as a member of the 2022 Frontier League Hall of Fame class. 

Prior to his work in the minor leagues, Cunningham was a three-time All-West Virginia Interscholastic Athletic Conference (WVIAC) selection while competing at Davis & Elkins College. As a senior, he was named WVIAC Pitcher of the Year and Davis & Elkins College Male Athlete of the Year.
 
Cunningham’s coaching career began in 2004 as a volunteer assistant at D&E. The following season, he coached at Liberty High School in Bealeton, Virginia, before coming to Waynesburg before the 2008 campaign.
 
Cunningham graduated from D&E with a degree in exercise science and added an MBA from Waynesburg in the Fall of 2009. He is a 1999 graduate of Steubenville High School and currently resides in Waynesburg with his wife Pam and their sons Cooper and Cade. Pam and Perry are the proud owners of Back Roads Energy.