KEENE SWAMPBATS 2025 YEAR IN REVIEW
For the final edition of the 2025 NECBL Year in Review series, the magnifying glass turns to the league champion Keene SwampBats.
The SwampBats were dominant from start to finish last season. After going 32-12 in the regular season, Keene went a perfect 6-0 in postseason play en route to their sixth championship in franchise history. Their 56 home runs led the NECBL by double digits, and they also managed to post a .268 average, the best mark in the league.
SwampBat outfielder Jack Herring was crowned the Rick Ligi Most Valuable Player after blasting eight home runs and posting a .985 OPS. In addition to Herring, second baseman Ty Mainolfi won the batting title, while Ripken Reese won the NECBL’s 10th Player Award.
Reese, Mainolfi, and Herring all made the NECBL first team, while closer Todd Kniebbe made the second team. On top of those four, third baseman Nick Romano, designated hitter Marshall Lipsey, outfielder Michael O’Brien, and reliever Ben Dean were All-NECBL honorable mentions.
The SwampBats' game of the year came in game one of the NECBL championship series, in one of the greatest games in NECBL history. Keene hosted the South Division champion Martha’s Vineyard Sharks at Alumni Field. Left-hander James Lordi took the ball for Keene, while Ross Felder started for Martha’s Vineyard.
Things got off to a rocky start for the SwampBats. After a scoreless first, the Sharks' offense flexed its might in the second. With two on and one out, first baseman Blake Binderup launched a three-run homer. Three batters later, with a man on second, NECBL first teamer Brayden Martin hit an RBI single, but came all the way around to score on an error from catcher TJ Schuyler. Keene did manage to score a run in the bottom of the second on an RBI single from Mainolfi, but through two innings, Martha’s Vineyard led 5-1.
Both offenses were held in check until the fifth, when Herring belted a solo home run. Through five innings, the Sharks were on top 5-2.
This is where things went from bad to worse for the SwampBats. After previously pitching two scoreless innings, Keene reliever Jayden Barroqueiro surrendered four straight singles, extending the Sharks' lead to 6-2.
In the seventh, Martha’s Vineyard’s designated hitter, Max Kaufer, and center fielder Will Hampton crushed back-to-back home runs off Barroqueiro. As game one of the championship series hit the seventh inning stretch, the Sharks seemed destined to win, up 8-2.
The SwampBats' odds of winning took another nosedive in the eighth. With reliever Marcello Mastroianni in the game, Carter Bentley blasted a two-run home run, the Sharks' fourth home run of the game, to go ahead 10-2. Then, with two outs and runners on first and second, Hampton hit a single, which scored two runs thanks to a Keene error. With six outs left to work with, the SwampBats were down 12-2.
Needing base runners, the SwampBats got two runners on via a walk and a hit by pitch. With one out, Ryan Jaros came to the dish as a pinch hitter and launched a three-run shot, cutting the Martha’s Vineyard lead to seven. However, that was all the SwampBats could manage in the eighth, and the Sharks led 12-5.
After an uneventful top of the ninth, Keene had one last chance to pull off a miracle comeback victory against reliever William Wallace, who had allowed just one earned run in 15.1 innings in the regular season. Herring set the tone for the frame, launching a solo home run, his second of the day, with one out in the ninth, cutting the deficit to 12-6. O’Brien followed with a single, but Lipsey struck out, and the SwampBats were down to their final out. Next up, Schuyler hit a ball to second base, which was booted, keeping the game alive and allowing O’Brien to score. Getting another lease on life, the SwampBats continued to battle. First baseman Chandler Tuupo drew a walk, Jaros hit an RBI single, and shortstop Andrew Bell drew a walk. With the game now 12-8, the lineup turned over, with Mainolfi stepping to the plate as the tying run. The Sharks went to the bullpen, bringing in Zachery Broderick to navigate the jam. Broderick walked Mainolfi. Reese came to the plate with the bases loaded, two outs, and his team down by three runs in game one of the championship series. In a scene straight from a movie, Reese came through with the photo finish, blasting a walk-off grand slam, as the SwampBats won 13-12. What had been a 10-run deficit an inning ago had turned into a Keene victory behind 11 unanswered runs, seven of those coming with two outs in the ninth inning.
Keene and Martha’s Vineyard combined for 25 runs on 29 hits, with eight of those leaving the yard. Coming off the bench in the eighth inning, Jaros managed to drive in four runs as part of a 2-2 day.
The SwampBats carried their game one momentum into game two, erasing a 7-0 deficit with 16 unanswered runs from the fifth through seventh innings.
The New England Collegiate Baseball League is a wooden bat college summer league that fields teams in all six New England states. Partially funded by Major League Baseball, the New England League started play in 1994 and has sent over 240 alumni to the Major Leagues, with nearly 30 alumni taken in the first round of the MLB Draft. For continuing coverage of the NECBL, visit NECBL.com and follow the league on X/Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
