KEENE, N.H. – Head coach Justin Blood and the Keene State College baseball program have announced that seniors David Floyd and Otis Follet will be team captains for the quickly-approaching 2026 season as the Owls look to defend their Little East Conference regular season and tournament championships from a season ago.

Floyd, a North Attleboro, Mass. native, becomes a two-time captain after he was also voted to the role a season ago.  He proved to be a key figure in the Owls' success, which included a 17-2 run heading into the NCAA tournament, as he pitched to a 3.50 ERA across 12 appearances (five starts), striking out 52 in 36 innings.  Floyd got stronger as the season progressed, allowing just two earned runs over his final 21.2 innings of work, including six innings of one-hit ball to set a tone to begin the LEC tournament as KSC dominated the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth 12-1.  He also got the save in the championship game, sending KSC into a dogpile on the Franklin Pierce University mound to celebrate their first league title in 17 years.  Over his three years, Floyd has whiffed 119 in 106.1 innings of work.

Joining him in a captaincy role for the first time this season will be Follet (Easthampton, Mass.), who has been a big presence in the Owl lineup in each of the past two seasons – hitting .326 in both with a combined 46 RBI.  The veteran has started 72 games over his three-year career thus far and has reached base at a .380 clip, including over .400 in each of the past two seasons.  Follet came through in a big way last postseason, finishing 9-for-21 (.429) in the LEC and NCAA tournaments (six games) with three multi-hit games.  He recorded at least one hit in five of the six postseason games, including in every game of the LEC tournament.  One of the most memorable moments came in the form of an eighth inning two-run double against the University of Southern Maine on the second day of the tournament to double a 2-0 advantage to four to help KSC advance to the winners' bracket final later that day (which they would also win, polishing off the final three outs the following morning due to weather).

"I'm really happy for Dave and Otis to be recognized by their teammates," said KSC head coach Justin Blood, about to enter his fifth season.  "It's a great honor to be named a team captain and I know these two will fill this role to the very best of their ability.  Dave takes great pride in his preparation and possesses the rare ability to handle his work at a high level while doing everything he can to assist and lead his teammates.  Otis fills our energy cup.  He's not off-the-wall, but he is super consistent.  Our season really turned a corner last spring when he returned to the lineup and grabbed hold of a stronger position of leadership.  These two are great representatives of our program and they will have a strong cast of supporters to help them lead the 2026 Owls."

KSC's campaign will take them country-wide this year, with the Owls opening the season with three games at Methodist University from February 26-28 before they travel to California to face California Lutheran University and Whittier College the following weekend.  The Owls will also travel to Arcadia University in Pennsylvania (March 17 and 18) for three, while also taking on a strong non-conference slate that includes matchups against Middlebury College (March 11), Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute (March 15), Mitchell College (April 8), Wheaton College (Mass.) (April 12), the University of Hartford (April 15), Babson College (April 26), and Salve Regina University (May 3) – among others.  The Owls' league slate will begin on March 21 at Rhode Island College for a doubleheader, with the home opener slated for the following weekend (March 28) against the University of Massachusetts-Boston.  The University of Southern Maine will also visit Keene for the second straight year (as is UMB) on April 11, and the Owls will entertain Vermont State University Castleton for a midweek game on April 21 and Western Connecticut State University on Senior Day May 1.  KSC will make in-league visits to Plymouth State University (April 4), Castleton (April 7), Eastern Connecticut State University (April 18), and the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth (April 25).

"We have a challenging slate of games this spring," added Blood.  "I'm excited for our guys to experience different areas of the country while playing at great venues against strong competition.  Our non-conference schedule will certainly prepare us well for what should be a highly-competitive spring in the LEC."

The Owls finished 25-17 a season ago, their highest win total since a 32-win campaign in 2012, when they concluded a stretch where they made the NCAA tournament four times in six years including reaching the regional final – just steps away from the College World Series.  It did not look like KSC's season was headed toward a championship when they started only 8-13 as the calendar flipped toward April, but they proceeded to win 17 of their next 19 games to win the league outright (13-3), beating everyone in the league but Eastern Connecticut – yet.  The Owls snapped a long skid against UMass-Boston with a dominating sweep of the Beacons on April 11 and only gained momentum from there, later using a 10-run first inning to decimate Castleton 18-1 in a near no-hitter on the road April 15.  KSC would also sweep Southern Maine at home on April 19, posting a dominating 12-2 mercy rule victory in the nightcap, and held UMass-Dartmouth to just one run over two games in a road sweep.  The Owls capped the season by sweeping Plymouth State up north, clinching the No. 1 seed with a 4-3 win in the opener before bludgeoning the Panthers 13-1 in the second contest.  KSC then put on a pitching clinic in the LEC tournament – a week marred by rain, causing the championship to be played at two venues including Franklin Pierce – allowing just six runs in four games.  The Owls' staff made a plethora of big pitches all week, but never more than in a sweet-tasting 2-1 championship win over Eastern Connecticut, the highlight being eventual tournament Most Outstanding Player Jake Jachym coming in with one on and one out in the bottom of the seventh to get a double play ball from Ray Leonzi on a 1-2 pitch.  He then fired a 1-2-3 eighth before Floyd locked down a victory that emphatically illustrated that KSC was back.

The Owls' offense was ultimately stymied by a pair of All-American arms as they fell to fifth-ranked Salve Regina University 5-0 and The College of New Jersey 4-1 in the NCAA tournament in Pennsylvania, but it served as valuable experience that the Owls hope to draw upon this year.

With 16 seniors and six juniors, KSC will have 40 games to begin penning what they hope is an even better story in 2026.