Hall of Fame
Scott Chiasson was a dominant closer during his tenure with the Eastern Connecticut State University baseball team from 1996-98, helping lead the Warriors to the 1998 Little East Conference (LEC) regular season and tournament titles on their way to capturing the NCAA Division III national championship.
Following his freshman season at shortstop in 1996, Chiasson earned All-LEC honors as a relief pitcher after leading the conference in saves in each of the league’s first two seasons as a baseball conference beginning in 1997. He was named the 1998 LEC Pitcher of the Year and a First Team American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) All-American after posting a 6-2 record with 10 saves over 28 total appearances, in which he fanned 59 batters over 61 innings while posting a 2.51 ERA and .173 opponent batting average.
Eastern Connecticut would lose just one postseason game on its way to capturing the third DIII national championship in program history in 1998. Chiasson recorded the final out of Eastern’s regional and national title wins, which saw it defeat LEC-rival UMass Dartmouth 10-3 in the regional final and later rout Montclair State 16-1 to close out the historic campaign. Chiasson’s number 23 was called ten times over the team’s 12 postseason contests. He won three games and saved five while fanning 11 batters and yielding a single earned run over 18.2 innings.
A native of Norwich, Connecticut, Chiasson concluded his career at Eastern with an 8-3 record and 18 saves, a number that still ranks second in program history. Following the 1998 season, Chiasson was drafted in the fifth round of the First-Year Player Draft by the Kansas City Royals (to date the highest Eastern pick in the regular phase of the draft), and was later taken No. 1 overall by the Chicago Cubs in the 2000 Rule 5 Draft after totaling 34 saves for the West Tennessee Diamond Jaxx (AA) and Iowa Cubs (AAA) in his third professional season.
Chiasson made his Major League debut with the Cubs the following season, fanning two of the three batters he faced on September 19, 2001 in a 10-0 win the Cincinnati Reds. He posted a 1-1 record in his six appearances out the bullpen for the Cubs that season, posting a 2.70 ERA and six Ks over 6.2 innings down the stretch, and would appear in four games out of the pen the following year. Chiasson’s only MLB victory came on September 30, 2001, when he recorded the final out of the top of the eighth inning before seeing Chicago take the lead for good in the bottom of the frame to complete a 7-6 come-from-behind win over the Houston Astros. He appeared in four games for the Cubs in 2002 before having to undergo Tommy John surgery.
Chiasson spent parts of 11 seasons in the minor leagues, mostly at the AAA level, while a member of the Baltimore Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Chicago Cubs Colorado Rockies, Kansas City Royals and Oakland Athletics organizations, and spent parts of five seasons in the Japanese Central League and Mexican League. Over 14 professions seasons, Chiasson posted a career record of 40-29 with 179 saves over 487 appearances. He recorded 674 strikeouts and a 3.49 ERA over his 737 innings of work. Chiasson’s final professional season was in 2011 with the Mexican League’s Tigres de Quintana Roo; he was 1-0 with three saves over seven appearances.
Chiasson went on to complete his bachelor’s degree in management from the University of Phoenix. He was inducted into the Eastern Connecticut’s Alumni Hall of Fame in 2012.