Just one year ago, the Kenyon College softball team toiled through a pandemic-shortened season with a stripped down roster of just 11 players.
Admittedly, COVID-19 and the short staff took their toll in a forgettable 1-17 season, the lone win coming in the next-to-last game on Senior Day against Hiram.
The season ahead, however, is a different story as the Ladies have a full slate of games scheduled and a player roster almost double the size of last season’s.
Coach Erin O’Neill, now in her 12th year with the Ladies, is excited to get the 2022 season started with a roster of 21, including a dozen seniors. Among that senior class are three returning impact players who stepped away from campus last season due to the pandemic.
Grace Finn, Sara Campagna and Emily Buckwalter will be back in the lineup and provide plenty of experience and pop. Finn, the Ladies’ center fielder, will check in with a .412 career batting average, 106 runs scored and 43 career stolen bases. Campagna, a catcher, owns a .411 career batting average over two previous seasons, as well as 51 RBI and 51 runs scored. Buckwalter returns after putting together three consecutive seasons of improvement at the plate. As a freshman, she hit .231, as a sophomore she hit .344 and as a junior in 2020, she produced a .400 batting average.
Other members of that large senior class who could be called on for contributions in 2022 include Bella Albrecht, Clare McMahon, Nicole Bishay and Emily Pater. Albrecht and McMahon shouldered a good deal of the offensive workload last season. Bishay and Pater can both hit, but it's their arms that Ladies will be relying on. Pater will be the No. 1 option in the center of the diamond. She has 20 career wins and 88 career strikeouts. Bishay has just 11 career appearances but a tidy 2.55 career earned run average. She also brings versatility with her ability to catch and play first base.
Junior Nicole Archambeau will take over at second base in the Kenyon defense, while it appears first-year Maddie Friday has first crack at the starting shortstop position. Albrecht will patrol right field and Buckwalter will be back at third.
With such a deep roster, O’Neill has options, both offensively and defensively. Olivia Hurley, Kassie Rimel, Paige Milhon and Tori Rogers all have significant collegiate experience and could certainly fill gaps when called upon.
The new-look Ladies will get their season started on March 6, kicking off an 11-day, 18-game schedule of games in Florida. The Ladies open North Coast Athletic Conference play at Denison University on April 2 and then return to campus the next day for their home opener against Capital University.
