Everyone in NCAA Division III baseball and softball circles wants to still be playing. The majority of the teams are not. The ones that are still taking to the diamond have every right to harbor big dreams.
Cora Thomas and Sierra Yates played on winning and state championship softball teams for coach Bert Berthiaume’s powerhouse at BFA-St. Albans.
They are still winning at the next level.
Thomas is a freshman who has been responding every time she gets the opportunity for a Christopher Newport University team that is 34-4.
Thomas is batting .400 (13-for-29) and has an inside-the-park home run.
She and her teammates at the Virginia school will be playing for the conference championship on Friday.
Yates is 2-0 and has not allowed an earned run for a Husson University club that is 24-10 and 8-0 in the North Atlantic Conference.
One of the more incredible NCAA Division III baseball stories belongs to Middlebury College. The Panthers had their pitching staff depleted by injuries losing two top starters, including 2024 New England Small College Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year Justin Lessing, and a top reliever.
Yet, they have more than weathered the storm. The Panthers are 24-11 and 10-2 in the NESCAC. They beat Tufts in the best-of-three quarterfinal series over the weekend and are headed to Bowdoin for the league championship series which begins on Friday.
“We have great senior leadership,” Middlebury baseball coach Mike Leonard said of the class of 10 players. “They know what it takes.”
Yes, those seniors were part of a Panther team that earned the NESCAC’s NCAA D-III tournament berth last season.
“I feel like we have a really athletic team, both position players and pitchers,” Leonard said.
Jacob Sherf, Kumai Handa and Stefano Yozzo lead a staff by combining to go 8-0.
Leonard said he did not expect to have to use so many pitchers to fill the void but it has worked out. He credits his coaching staff with “putting the puzzle pieces together during the game.”
Kyle McCausland was a known quantity throughout the country and is batting .357 with a team-best 11 home runs. His 45 RBIs also lead the team.
But the Panthers have gotten a lift from plenty of others in the lineup including Ben Slaughter who is batting .272 with five homers and who had a big quarterfinal series. His seventh-inning home run on Sunday helped to catapult the Panthers to the championship weekend in Maine.
Leonard said that first baseman Will Ashley has been a pleasant surprise with his .304 batting average, four homers and 29 RBIs.
He also credits shortstop Chi Carter with being a big piece of the success.
Leonard came to Middlebury in 2016 after being the head coach at NESCAC rival Bates.
He was well aware of the Panthers lavish success in other sports on a national and regional level.
The baseball history, though, was one of struggling for the most part.
Leonard and his staff have resurrected the program and the Panthers were NESCAC champions in 2022 and 2024.
He credits the turn-around to “players’ leadership and a phenomenal culture.”
The refurbished all-turf baseball facility is a showpiece that is an immense recruiting tool.
“It is the best park that I have played or coached in,” Leonard said.
“With our indoor and outdoor facility, we can articulate our baseball experience to players from California and other places.”
The upcoming weekend in Brunswick, Maine has high stakes. Winning the championship would allow the Panthers to get back to the NCAA Tournament for the second year in a row and third time in four years.
Leonard has told his players that they can beat anyone up there or get beat by anyone.
“I like what we can do with this group if we go up there and play to our potential,” he said.
Leonard was inducted into the Rockville (Connecticut) High School Hall of Fame in 2013.
One of Rockville’s most famous citizens is the late Gene Pitney.
Pitney sang such monster hits such as “Last Exit to Brooklyn” and “Twenty Four Hours to Tulsa.”
Leonard is thinking more in terms of Eastlake, Ohio, the site of the NCAA Division III World Series.
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