Keene State wins LEC title
- Updated: May 4, 2025
PLYMOUTH – A little more than three weeks ago, the Keene State College baseball team was 8-13 overall and 1-2 in the Little East Conference following a 12-7 road loss to Eastern Connecticut State University. Now, 23 days later, the Owls have done something only one previous Keene State team has done since joining the league prior to the 1998 season – win an outright regular season championship.
KSC (21-15, 13-3 LEC) needed one win on Friday to lock up the top seed for the league tournament and ensure the tourney would be held at the Owl Athletic Complex next Wednesday through Saturday, with any tiebreaker scenarios working to their benefit, but instead left no doubt, sweeping Plymouth State University (6-22, 3-13 LEC) 4-3 and 13-1 while never trailing at Parish Field.
The Owls now join only the 2008 team, which went on to win the tournament on their home field with 21-2 and 14-7 championship day victories over the University of Southern Maine, as league regular season champions in the Division III era. KSC also shared titles in 2006 and 2010, part of a stretch in which they made the NCAA tournament four times in six years. Those hopes can begin to return to the Elm City under head coach Justin Blood, who has taken the program from a 3-19 Covid-altered season in 2021 and 6-28 campaign the following year in his first season to a conference regular season champion and 13-3 mark three years later.
It did not always seem this would be the season for that to occur for the first half of it as KSC lost 13 of its first 21 games, including four consecutive losses (two in non-conference action) after they won their LEC opener over Rhode Island College on March 28. The Owls lost just one more conference matchup all season, and after two wins Friday, are now 13-2 since sweeping the now No. 2 seed University of Massachusetts-Boston 10-0 (8 innings) and 9-5 on April 11.
That doubleheader, against a program KSC had lost 19 straight times to, acted as a springboard for success, as eight days later the Owls would become the only team in the league this season to sweep the Southern Maine. A hiccup at home against Eastern Connecticut on April 22 did not derail KSC’s quest, as the Owls bounced back to sweep the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth on the road and saw UMass-Boston sweep ECSU last weekend to put the Owls back in control of their own fate. They left nothing to chance from there, finishing a season sweep of Vermont State University-Castleton this past Tuesday before matching last year’s win total with a pair of victories today.
“This group has a lot to be proud of,” said Blood, who previously presided over a program turnaround at the University of Hartford when they were at the Division I level. “Winning a regular season title is a great accomplishment. Our goal has been to get back to the NCAA tournament. Preparing for Wednesday starts now.”
The Owls will open the LEC tournament against No. 6 seed, yet defending league tournament champion, UMass-Dartmouth on Wednesday at 9 a.m. The day will also feature second-seeded UMass-Boston and No. 5 seed Rhode Island College at 11:30 a.m. as well as No. 3 seed Eastern Connecticut and No. 4 seed Southern Maine at 2 p.m. KSC took both meetings from UMD exactly a week ago, 4-1 and 8-0 on the road, and the Corsairs moved down a rung in the standings on the final day after they gave up 26 runs while being swept on the road by ECSU as Rhode Island College won a pair convincingly at Castleton (10-2 and 14-5).
It is the first time since 2012 and 2013 that KSC has qualified for the LEC tournament in consecutive seasons. They made it just once (in 2017) before returning to the postseason a year ago.
KSC now shifts its attention to the conference tournament on their home field, where they are 10-3 (including a makeshift home game at Franklin Pierce University) this season. In 12 games at the Owl Athletic Complex, the Owls are hitting .333 as a team with Ahlers’ posting an eye-popping .532 (25-for-47) average with eight doubles, three home runs, and 19 RBI.
Keene State finishes the season with the second-best team batting average in the league (.306) and third-best ERA.
“I think the biggest factor in our mid-season turnaround was our team taking ownership for the failures of the first half,” Blood said. “After that, they could take the necessary steps to get on track. In order to right the ship, you have to steer it, and they have done that.”
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