GAMIBER — The 2023 Kenyon College softball season, which gets underway Sunday, March 5, with a slate of spring break games in Florida, presents a very new landscape for the Owls. The team, under the direction of new head coach Emily Miller – as well as new assistant coach Karlie Milburn – has a roster of 17. That count includes a good deal of youth, as seven first-years and three sophomores figure into the mix. As the Owls try to sort out all the new faces, they’ll also have to compensate for the loss of a dozen graduating seniors from the 2022 team, which posted a 24-16 overall record and a 6-10 North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) mark.
2022 Review
Considering all the difficulties last year’s team went through, the season was clearly stamped a success. The 2022 club was the first to get back to normal competition following two seasons of pandemic-altered campaigns. In 2020, Kenyon played just 16 games before the rest of the season was canceled. In 2021, the team endured a 1-17 season in which, again, games were limited and the roster was restricted to just 11 players. When the program put the 2022 team on the field, head coach Erin O’Neil had to step away due to personal family issues. That left new assistant coach Lauren Graf to step in as the interim head coach. Despite all those circumstances, the Kenyon team held together pretty well, played through a full season of 40 games and produced a winning record.
At the plate, the 2022 team was paced by sophomore Maddie Friday, who hit .373 with 26 runs scored and 25 RBI. Senior Emily Buckwalter led the team in RBI with 37, a total that included a program single-game record seven RBI against Immaculata. Another senior, Grace Finn, hit .342 and posted a team-high 44 runs while tying the Kenyon record with 150 career runs scored.
Three more seniors – Bella Albrecht, Clare McMahon and Nicole Bishay – added more firepower to a Kenyon offense that scored the most runs (264) in program history and also posted a program single-season record on-base percentage of .407. Bishay and fellow senior Emily Pater handled the bulk of the pitching duties. Bishay cranked out an impressive 15-6 record to go along with 1.99 earned run average. Pater backed up Bishay with a 9-9 mark while allowing just 16 walks in 471 opponent at-bats. At season’s end, Bishay was named to the All-NCAC first team, while Buckwalter, Finn and Sara Campagna, yet another senior, were awarded All-NCAC honorable mentions.
Preseason Polls
Kenyon finished with a 6-10 conference record one season ago and placed seventh in the conference standings.
When the NCAC office released the 2023 preseason coaches poll a couple of weeks ago, seventh was exactly where the Owls were predicted to finish again. The Owls were slotted between Ohio Wesleyan University in sixth place and Oberlin College in eighth place. DePauw University and Hiram College topped the polls, tying for first place with four first-place votes and 45 poll points apiece.
Coach's Bio
Although she is new to the head coaching position at Kenyon, Emily (McDonough) Miller, is not new to the college. She was previously at Kenyon as an assistant coach during the 2020 season, when the team played 16 spring break games in Florida and produced a 12-4 record before things came to an abrupt halt due to the pandemic.
With her rehiring in August 2022, Miller, a native of Marlboro, New York, became the sixth head coach in the 25-year history of the Kenyon program. Prior to any of her work at Kenyon, Miller served as head coach at Southern Vermont College. She also gained coaching experience for two years as a graduate assistant coach at Frostburg State University. While attaining her master’s degree in school counseling, she helped the Bobcats notch a 46-31 combined record during the 2017 and 2018 seasons. Frostburg earned berths into the Capital Athletic Conference’s postseason tournament in both of those seasons.
Miller’s undergraduate studies and playing career took place at NCAA Division I St. Bonaventure University. She broke the program’s all-time hits record and became the only player in St. Bonaventure history to surpass the 200-hit mark. She also finished with the most runs scored in program history (108), second-most stolen bases (96) and third-best batting average (.382). In 2016, she was named to both the Atlantic 10's All-Conference team and Academic All-Conference team. She was a member of the 2016 Atlantic 10's Commissioner's Honor Roll and graduated in 2016 with a bachelor’s degree in sports science.
Coach's Quote:
"We have an ambitious spring break schedule featuring nationally ranked opponents and teams that were in the NCAA Division III Tournament in 2022. This schedule will put our blend of veterans and newcomers to the test early, as well as our young pitching staff,” Miller said. “Our first goal is to compete for a berth in the NCAC Tournament this season. Junior Maddie Friday and senior Nicole Archambeau will be looked to for strong leadership and results in our infield.”
Key Returners
Playing directly off Miller’s quote, the Owls will be guided by Friday and Archambeau. Friday played shortstop last year, her first full season of collegiate ball. She was given some cushion in the lineup, where she mainly batted at the bottom of the order. That, however, didn’t stop her from leading the team with a .373 batting average. For the season ahead, she’ll look to not only maintain or improve her offense, but shore up her defensive skills to become a complete player for the Owls.
On the right side of the infield, Kenyon has several returnees, including Archambeau, who started 15 games last season and hit .311. She shared time with Natalya Delsante, a first-year who made an impact at both second and first base. Delsante ended up playing in 37 games and, at the plate, hit .271 with 25 runs scored. When Delsante wasn’t playing first, Paige Milhon, now a senior, set up camp there. She’s played in 69 career games for Kenyon and will provide leadership and defensive stability in the season ahead. In terms of pitching, the only returning player is Amanda Harris, who is now a sophomore. She did not start a game last season, but did get in her first six innings of collegiate experience. In that short span, she fanned seven batters.
Key Departures
The list of graduates who departed the program last season is long, giving the young 2023 team big shoes to fill. In the pitcher's circle, both Bishay and Pater are gone. They accounted for all but one start and all but 19 innings pitched last season. At the plate, aside from Friday and Delsante, six of Kenyon’s top offensive threats from a year ago have departed. All-NCAC performers Bishay, Buckwalter and Finn are among that group, as are McMahon, Albrecht and Campagna. Those six combined for 169 runs scored, 142 RBI and 24 stolen bases during the 2022 season. To put that more in perspective, that was 64% of the team’s runs scored, 63% of the RBIs and 62% of the stolen bases.
Schedule Overview
As with everything else surrounding this team, the schedule will look different from the start. The team moved its spring break site from Fort Myers to Kissimmee and the level of competition was moved up a couple of notches, too. The team kicks things off in Florida with a doubleheader on Sunday. The Owls will be in Florida for about 10 days and will play 16 games. Upon return, they’ll play a long list of road games, including the NCAC opener against Oberlin College on April 1. At the back end of the schedule, which contains mainly conference contests, the Owls’ home opener is set for April 8 against DePauw University. Five of Kenyon’s last seven doubleheaders will be held on home turf.
