Husson University’s baseball team was concluding a preseason trip to Florida some 13 months ago when its entire 2020 campaign came to a sudden halt as the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the country.
Things are somewhat back to normal for coach Chris Morris’ club this spring, at least as far as having a chance to win the North Atlantic Conference title and qualify for the NCAA Division III tournament.
There’s no spring break swing, limited nonconference games, a tightly packed NAC schedule and just one out-of-state bus trip during the regular season.
But to the players and coaches, those are modest concessions for the opportunity to play the game.
“The guys have really worked hard to push themselves in a direction to get themselves ready for this,” Morris said. “It’s certainly been a long 12 months and I think we end every practice just being grateful to be on the field and having a chance to compete again, and just to be around each other.”
Under this year’s 20-game NAC schedule, Husson plays five games against one of the other four NAC East Division teams each week, a single nine-inning contest followed by two, seven-inning doubleheaders.
The Eagles opened their conference slate in unblemished fashion last week against the University of Maine at Farmington. The series began with a 6-0 victory at Farmington on Thursday followed by two doubleheader sweeps, 6-0 and 4-0 on Saturday at Bangor and 6-5 and 6-1 on Sunday back at Farmington.
“We’ve always played a four-game set on the weekends, but with the protocol of playing just one team a week it just made more sense to add a midweek game against the same team so that way you weren’t just practicing all week,” Morris said.
That schedule differs slightly from a typical year when the Eagles would face one or more nonconference foes during the week before playing conference doubleheaders on the weekends.
“Because of COVID we wanted to limit opponents as much as possible but also provide a lot of games,” NAC associate commissioner Kate Roy said. “Each school team has to test and receive results in between every opponent, so the idea is to play a bunch of games against the same opponent and if someone does test positive you’ve at least limited the exposure to one other team before moving on.
“It’s not ideal and not forever, but we’re just excited people are playing games.”
The format is the same for NAC softball, except that the East Division has six members so teams match up for two doubleheaders against one of their five rivals each week for their 20 regular-season games.
Husson, the preseason favorite in the NAC East softball race, is 15-1 overall, 8-0 in NAC play, heading into this weekend’s home series against UMF.
The Husson baseball team, also the coaches’ preseason pick to win its division, is 5-4 overall with the losses coming March 20-21 to the nationally ranked University of Southern Maine on before series against Saint Joseph’s College of Standish and the University of Maine at Presque Isle were canceled.
The Eagles make their only out-of-state trip of the regular season Thursday for a single conference encounter at Northern Vermont-Lyndon (0-3 overall, 0-0 NAC). The scene then shifts to the Winkin Complex in Bangor for doubleheaders Saturday and Sunday.
Five-game sets against UMPI (April 22-25) and Thomas College of Waterville (April 29-May 2) conclude Husson’s conference baseball schedule. The top two teams in the NAC East and West (New York) divisions advance to best-of-three semifinal series tentatively scheduled for May 13-15 to determine divisional champions.
The East and West winners will play a best-of-three series May 21-22 for the conference championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tourney.
