SALEM — Some college coaches take a while to get their programs moving in the right direction. At Salem State, Vikings baseball coach Al Donovan inherited a strong team last season and has it competing for a MASCAC title this spring.
The Vikings, 12-6, seem to have found their groove in the early going of their schedule. Pitching, hitting and defense are all coming together for the Vikings, adding up to create a well-oiled Salem machine that’s moving into the MASCAC portion of its schedule.
Donovan, a Lynn native who resides in Nahant, likes what he has seen from his Vikings thus far.
“If you said that we’d be 12-6 after 18 games I’d think we’d probably be there,” Donovan, in his second season as head coach at Salem, said. “We brought back a lot of experience in the lineup and at catcher. We brought back an experienced pitching staff, guys that were thrown into the fire last season. We gave away a couple games in Arizona at the beginning of the season but we’ve been playing great baseball the past few games.”
Offensively, the Vikings are forming one of the stronger batting orders in the conference. Salem’s roster carries eight players who are batting over .300 for the season, including Lynn English alum Kyle O’Connor. A sophomore transfer from Southern Maine, O’Connor has fit in nicely with the Vikings and has a .339 average.
“We have good senior leadership with the at-bats,” Donovan, a 1984 Tech alum, said. “We have guys like Alex Toomey, Jose Cedano and Joe White who are all crushing the ball. Kyle made National D3 Team of the Week, along with pitcher Stephen Keskinidis, earlier this season when he batted .640 for the week.”
On the mound, Keskinidis has led the Salem pitching staff with a dominant start to the season. Keskinidis, who signed with the North Shore Navigators prior to the start of the college season, is 3-0 with a 1.27 ERA and 25 strikeouts in four starts. Peabody graduates Steve Leavitt (2-1) and Andrew McLaughlin (2-3) have also pitched well for the Vikings.
“We have great senior leadership in our pitching staff,” Donovan said. “Our two pitchers from Peabody, Andrew and Steve, have both pitched well for us this season. Eddy Duran, a former Salem High player, has really turned it around in his sophomore season. Eddy’s been our go-to guy out of the bullpen as a left-hander. He’s done very well for us.”
In addition to coaching the team toward the right direction, Donovan has been adamant about recruiting local players to Salem. Other locals on the team include Nahant native and Bishop Fenwick alum J.P. Reiling, Saugus Justin Horvath, Salem’s Matt Marquez, Winthrop’s James Baxter, Lynnfield’s Nick Aslanian and Lynn English’s Brett Molea.
“I’m a big advocate of the North Shore high school baseball coaches,” Donovan said. “Plenty of local teams have had success over the years in the state tournament. Coaches like Mark Bettencourt at Peabody, Joe Luis at Saugus, Roger Day at Danvers, Mike Giardi at Marblehead. These are baseball guys and very good coaches.
“If we can continue to get local guys, that benefits us,” Donovan added. “The campus here is a great campus.”
Now that Salem’s approaching the conference portion of its schedule, the Vikings are hoping to continue their strong start to the season. Donovan’s confident that his team has the talent and experience to contend in MASCAC.
“The goal is to win the MASCAC regular season title and the MASCAC Tournament,” Donovan said. “We have the manpower to go out and execute on the field. All games are a grind because it’s conference play. They’re only seven innings and they’re double-headers so anything can happen. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing, you have to execute all the way from offense to defense, pitching and baserunning.”
Donovan credited his assistant coaches for the roles they’ve played in Salem’s success this spring. Assisting Donovan on the coaching staff are former Winthrop High and Merrimack coach Barry Rosen, along with former Vikings players Colton Fontaine and Mike Lamothe.
“Our coaching staff has put in a lot of hard work,” Donovan said. “Barry, Colton and Mike have all done excellent jobs. In order to have a good team you have to have good coaches in place. We talk about what we want to work on, what we need to work on. Our coaching staff’s very knowledgeable. Im very happy about the coaching staff we have. That’s a very important part of our success.”
Salem hosts Mass. Maritime for a doubleheader this afternoon (12/2).
“We have to keep the tempo up and challenge ourselves each day in practice,” Donovan said. “Our players do believe that there’s any team in the country we can play and beat.”
