Kean Baseball preps for action after canceled season

By: Ruben Nieves | Published by Febraury 23. 2021

A successful  Kean Baseball team will be returning for a 2021 season after Covid 19 shut them down  last spring when their record was 8-2 and it looked like they were potentially on the way to the playoffs.

Head coach Neil Ioviero will be prepping his team for a later start compared to when they usually begin in February.

“We have our conference schedule that we believe we’re going to play, and the athletic directors will be meeting to decide an exact date and how many games,” Ioviero said. “It will be somewhere around April.”

After the 2020 season was cancelled, Joshua Jackson is ready for a new season.

“It feels good to have a season this year, last year our season got cut short and we were playing really good ball,” Jackson said. “I’m glad we’re finally able to finish what we started by preparing ourselves for a national championship.”

Jackson, a junior catcher, who before the season was cancelled, batted .333 in seven games in 2020. Jackson is looking to play in many games as possible this season.

“I want to be able to play in as many games as possible this year,” Jackson said. “Another big goal for me is to win a gold glove behind the dish, but most importantly I want to avoid any injuries that may cause setbacks.”

With the season being cancelled and pitchers being inactive for such a long time, Ioviero looks to prep his pitchers for the season’s start in April.

“We’re not going to have the same luxury of hitting the ground running like we normally have, but at the same time we have so much time from now to when the season starts,” Ioviero said. “We feel we can go at a slower pace and still get them where they need to be.”

Despite being inactive for almost a year, Collin Kiernan has been staying in shape for the season start.

“I have been trying to stay in shape by using indoor facilities to keep my arm mobile, as well as spending a lot of time in the gym helping with strength and flexibility,” Kiernan said.

Kiernan, a junior pitcher who in three appearances in 2020, had two wins with six strikeouts, is excited for a new season and looks to give his very best this season.

“Having a season feels great, especially after what happened last year,” Kiernan said. “I’m looking to give my best every time I’m on the mound.”

With a new season comes a new field, as the team will be playing on new turf  in 2021.

“We changed the color of the infield, before it was a reddish color, now it’s chocolate brown,” Ioviero said. “It really mimics a dirt field when it’s wet, and the mound and the plate will be turf completely and so is the bullpen.”

With the new season, comes the same expectations for the baseball program.

“For this season, our expectations are high. It is hard to expect anything other than a national championship,” Jackson said. “Every day we step on the field we’re playing for our guy Jack Nagy who passed. We expect to be the best team every time we are out there playing.”

Nagy, who passed away in 2019 was the catcher’s coach on Ioviero’s staff.

Kiernan, along with the rest of his team, will be playing with a chip on his shoulder after the cancellation of the 2020 season.

“As a team we all have had our eyes on one thing and that’s the National Championship after getting last year’s run stripped from us,” said Kiernan. “We all have had a chip on our shoulder. Not playing last year lights a fire under us to get going.”

With his team being ranked #4 in the country in Division III, Ioviero expects his team to be able to get back together while following safety protocols and hopes his team can compete for a championship.

“The expectation is to get these kids back and get them acclimated with each other, that’s what’s most important,” Ioviero said. “We always say if they’re having a Regional and a World Series, we’re hoping to compete and give ourselves a chance to win.”

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