As the Kent State baseball teams prepares to take on an opponent to be determined Thursday at 6pm at Crushers Stadium in the first round of the 2025 MAC Tournament, the team was still trying to find their identity and consistency earlier in the season.
After getting swept by Mercer in a three game set February 21-23, the team stood at 1-5.
As is common for midwest and northern schools unable to get outside to practice before the season starts, the team was looking to get in a rhythm and find a routine lineup.
After a tough 10-11 loss at Bowling Green on March 21, the team stood 8-11 overall and 2-2 in the MAC, while playing on the road at the defending regular season MAC Champions. The next day Kent State bullied their way to a 20-4 run rule win over the Falcons, which led to a 9-7 win and series win the next day.
Since starting the season 8-11, the Flashes are 29-5 since the calendar officially turned to spring.
Kent State has been dominant in league play at times, with 8 of their 23 wins coming via the run rule (10 after 7) victory variety.
Also, six of their seven league losses are by one or two runs.
Kent State Head Coach Jeff Duncan reflected on the Flashes’ season thus far during a workout Tuesday at Crushers Stadium.
“I’m just proud of our guys, they’re very resilient all year long. We’re very talented, very consistent. You look at the beginning of the season we started 1-5, I think we were 8-11 at one point. And then I think we went 32-5 after that. I think it just shows how talented we are and how resilient. They put in a lot of work and it started back in September when we were on campus from the development phase as a culture, as a program.”
Some of the keys to the season have been the emergence and strong play of several notable players. Hayden Jatczak’s season, being named MAC Player of the Year, after transferring from Division Two Saginaw Valley State has been a game changer for the Flashes.
Jake Casey’s comeback from season ending Tommy John surgery last year to be the all-league performer he was capable of being, has been huge as well.
True freshman Sawyer Solitaria being named MAC Freshman of the Year, as well as freshman Micah Kiracofe have been instrumental to the lineup on a daily basis.
Luke Matthews stepping in at shortstop, transferring from Palomar College in California has been vital.
The emergence of Jacob Bean on the mound, transitioning from Sunday starter to Saturday to Friday all this season, after only pitching nine innings last year has been key to a starting rotation that had unknowns at the beginning of the season.
“Our overall development has been outstanding. The coaching staff has done a great job with these guys and then obviously we’ve done a good job recruiting,” Duncan said. “We got talented players that have bought into our system so it’s been great.”
RAIN RAIN GO AWAY: Kent State and the rest of the Mid-American Conference will be looking to dodge the miserable weather that is expected to descend upon Northeast Ohio this week. With the wind blowing in, rain, thunderstorms and chilly temperatures expected, offense could be at a premium.
Fortunately for the Flashes, they can beat you in a variety of ways with their offense, and is not dependent on power.
Kent State stole 65 bases in 30 league games and that is 27 more than the next team in the league Western Michigan, who finished with 38. They were second in the league drawing 157 walks, and led the league with 23 sacrifice flies. They were also second in hit by pitches and on base percentage.
Kent State will have to play clean defensively and pitch from ahead in counts.
“I think it’s going to be really important to move the baseball offensively, keep the ball low,” Duncan said. “I think the wind’s going to be kind of blowing in, playing a factor all week it looks like. We’ve got really good team speed too so just using that. From a pitching standpoint, being able to get off the field, play good defense and throw strikes.”
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