Baseball
Keene State baseball is seeking to show its potential in a new season after a bumpy 2023.
The team went 13-25 overall and 3-13 in conference play, which caused the Owls to miss out on postseason play.
Justin Blood, head coach, said the team will have to make adjustments in order to reach the Little East Conference (LEC) tournament.
“We’re going to have to respond to failures and make some adjustments that some of the more experienced and talented teams in the league were capable of, and are capable of,” Blood said.
An injury to the Owls’ top starter, junior Phil Nichols, was a setback in 2023, as well as scouting reports causing a decline in the success of the offense, he said.
“Losing [Nichols] and having some guys be pitched a little differently in the second half of the season, we were down a big arm and some guys didn’t make good enough adjustments at the plate,” Blood said. In terms of new players, Blood noted the potential impacts of the additions.
“We have a couple of guys who are definitely going to impact the roster, the lineup and the pitching staff right away,” he said. “We definitely had some holes in areas that we needed to improve at.”
With returning players, Blood said he switched some positions around. “We’ve shuffled the deck a little bit defensively and those guys are still getting acclimated to their new spots but I think we’ve made some big improvements from ‘22 to ‘23 defensively,” he said.
Blood said he hopes the leadership roles in the team will be wellrounded in the coming season. “Jack Lang … Nichols, maybe they’re a little more soft spoken, lead by example, but the way they go about their work is very consistent and I think they’re really well respected and liked by their teammates,” Blood said.
Blood said graduate student Brendon Eaton, who has been with the team since 2019, has taken on the bulk of the leadership within the team in recent years.
Eaton said the team’s returning players gaining experience will be a resource in the upcoming season.
“A lot of them were inexperienced going in last year, but now they’ve got a year under their belt. I think they kind of know what to expect this year.”
An area Eaton said he is looking to see the team improve in is holding onto leads.
“Part of that is near the end of the game getting that big hit that solidifies the game for you [and] takes you over the top of the other team and not give them any energy to retake the lead,” Eaton said.
Eaton said his goal for the season is to make the playoffs, “At this point, I just want to win and help younger guys in any way I really can, obviously I want to have a good season, but at the end of the day I would just rather be in the playoffs than anything.”
The LEC Preseason Baseball Coaches’ Poll saw Keene State place sixth among the nine teams, netting 27 points. Eastern Connecticut, who won the LEC tournament in both 2022 and 2023, was ranked the unanimous favorite in the poll, with 64 points and eight out of eight possible votes. The Owls will kick off their season on Feb. 23, at Aberdeen, Md. in a matchup against McDaniel College.
Softball
Keene State’s softball team is looking to rebound its way back into playoff contention following a rocky 2023 season.
The team went 8-26 overall and 3-13 in conference play, ultimately failing to make the playoffs.
Carrah Fisk Hennessey, head coach, said their record on paper does not fully illustrate their performance last season. “When people look at our schedule from the outside in they don’t realize that we had six conference games that were one-run losses,” Fisk Hennessey said. A small roster and injuries were the two key setbacks for the team, Fisk Hennessey said. “This year we have a larger roster, we were purposeful in bringing in 11 new faces to the team this year,” she said.
Fisk Hennessey said softball, unlike other sports, requires all players including returners to earn innings during the non-traditional fall season and winter off-season.
One dynamic the team brings with them heading into the season is a lack of seniors. “It also provides us with a really great opportunity with such a young team to have this core group earn their roster spots next season and continue moving forward,” Fisk Hennessey said. In terms of leadership within the team, Fisk Hennessey said a core group has emerged. “Every single player on our team has a responsibility for being accountable and being a leader for themselves and for the team, I really do see four of our juniors really stepping up and embracing that challenge,” Fisk Hennessey said.
Those four juniors are Pitcher/Infielder Lilah Demmy, Pitcher/ Outfielder Carissa Miller, Outfielder/Infielder Liv Whittier and Second Baseman/Outfielder Molly Murray.
Murray said if the team can finish off teams offensively, the season will prove more successful than the last. “We are right there with the other teams, it’s just getting that final step to win the games and score,” Murray said.
In the 2023 season, Murray held a .357 average, scoring 5 RBIs for the team across 115 at-bats.
Murray said she is optimistic the team will improve on its pitching, noting Miller’s injury early on in the 2023 season being a detriment. “We really had two pitchers but this year we have six or seven now which is super helpful and important,” she said.
In terms of her leadership role in a younger team, Murray said it is key to ease rookie’s anxieties as they prepare for the season’s start. “It’s scary coming into college and playing as a freshman on a college team [and] working on how to be confident.”
The overarching goal for the team is to make it to the postseason, Murray said. “We’ve been close game-wise but I think it’s super important that we get there this year and get as far as we can in the postseason and that starts with working hard now,” she noted.
In the Little East Conference (LEC) Preseason Softball Coach’s Poll, Keene State was ranked last among the nine teams, netting 11 points. Eastern Connecticut, who lost in an upset against UMass-Dartmouth in the LEC tournament last year, led the top of the pack with 61 points and six out of eight possible votes.
The Owls’ first 10 games of the season will be played in Little River, S.C., with their first game on March 14, against Mississippi University for Women.
Nathan Hope can be contacted at
nhope@kscequinox.com
