FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. – Senior
Jonathan Chatfield made sure his final season debut was a big one. After KSC saw a 3-1 lead vanish in the bottom of the sixth, the Connecticut native connected for a big answering three-run blast in the top of the seventh as the Keene State College baseball team downed Methodist University 7-3 at Armstrong-Shelley Field in rainy-then-cloudy North Carolina on Friday evening.
Chatfield's homer was the 18th of his career, moving into fourth place alone and past
Kyle Morrill (2009-2012) on the all-time KSC career list, and it wound up essentially being a game-winner as the defending Little East Conference champion Owls won their season opener for the first time under fifth-year head coach
Justin Blood. KSC enters 2026 with 22 upperclassmen and a boatload of expectations on the heels of ripping off a 17-2 run including a 4-0 mark in the Little East tournament at home (and at Franklin Pierce University) last season in which they limited their opponents to just six runs.
One game in, one win down. The Owls pounded out 13 hits, with eight of the nine starters recording at least one hit. Catcher
Evan Cali had three including two doubles out of the top spot of the Owls' order, while
Evan McCue finished 2-for-4 in the No. 2 spot.
Lucas Rogers, who was sidelined in March last year with an injury, was 2-for-5 and drove in two runs from the cleanup spot, while
Ethan Rainha (2-4) also had multiple hits.
After a missed chance in the top of the second, KSC got on the board first with a two-out run in the third as McCue made good on Cali's double with an RBI base hit. The Monarchs, a 33-win team a season ago that won two NCAA tournament games, answered to tie it in the third, but the home team never led as they fell to 2-6 to start 2026.
Otis Follet walked with one down in the fourth and was followed by singles from Rainha and
Alec Varano as KSC retook the lead (2-1).
Two doubles in the fifth and an RBI single from Rogers tacked on another run for the Owls to make it 3-1, but Methodist used a pair of errors and some paper-cut base hits in the sixth to tie it at three.
Troy Brennan avoided further trouble by striking out Keegan Megaro and Parker Evans to end the inning.
The first three of the top of the seventh reached as KSC responded immediately, with Cali and McCue base hits setting the stage for Chatfield to do what he does best. The Owls' bullpen – Brennan and
Dylan Ellison took it from there. Brennan induced a big double play after Israel Ortiz's leadoff single in the eighth to keep it 6-3 before Rogers' RBI knock in the ninth added another insurance run. Ellison then mowed down the Monarchs in the ninth for a save, striking out Bronson Shaikh to put the Owls in the win column to start 2026.
"Jake (Jachym) gave us a good start and then Troy and Dylan did a great job out of the pen," said KSC head coach
Justin Blood, who has increased the Owls' win total year-over-year from six in 2022 to 13 to 21 and to 25 with a league title last year. "We had a great response offensively after we gave up a couple free 90s. We had a pretty balanced offensive attack on the day and obviously Chatfield's big swing swung the momentum back to us at the time we needed it. We will need to get more of the same to get out of here with another win or two tomorrow."
Jachym allowed just one earned run (three overall) in his season debut, going 5.1 innings and allowing five hits. Brennan (1-0) got the win with 2.1 frames of scoreless relief, walking two and striking out three.
Jackson Kuhn, a senior, took the loss for Methodist, allowing 12 hits and six runs in six innings with one walk and five strikeouts.
The teams return to the diamond tomorrow for a doubleheader beginning at 11:00 a.m. before the Owls venture back north before flying to California for four games next weekend.
