LEWISTON, Maine -- The Bates baseball team heads into the 2024 season with a lot of experience and some intriguing talent as well, as the Bobcats open their campaign Thursday at 2:30pm when they visit Averett University. 

Bates, coming off a season where they went 16-15, only graduated five players from last year's squad. This season, the Bobcats boast 11 seniors. 

"Our seniors understand the brand of baseball we want to play and have a blue-collar mentality," head coach Jon Martin said. "We play on a natural surface at Bates and we're the kind of team that's not afraid to play in the mud and get out there and dive after a ball in the mud. We don't care. We're tough and we want to play gritty." 

All three captains are seniors, with shortstop Jack Brennan (West Hartford, Conn.), infielder Chris Cimino (Scarborough, Maine), and RHP Noah Timmer (Keene, N.H.) giving the Bobcats a strong leadership group.

"These three guys are something else," Martin said. "They're pretty special. They have proven what they're all about, and they're all about playing baseball, doing things the right way, having some fun with it as well. They all want us to have a great team, a great attitude, and they want us to go out and compete and play hard."

Brennan is the team's leading returning hitter, having thrived at the top of the order last season with a .321 batting average, a .446 On-Base Percentage, and 19 stolen bases in 24 attempts. Cimino had a solid season as well, hitting .319 with a .442 OBP and 13 steals in 13 attempts. 

As a team, the Bobcats smashed the program record for stolen bases in one season last year with 124. 

"We want to have an aggressive mentality offensively," Martin said. "We want to put pressure on the defense, put pressure on the pitcher and catcher, but be smart about it. Coach Mike Laflamme came in last season and he has his style on how he wants to run an offense. And I bought into it because I wanted something as well that our team would buy into, and he did a great job with it." 

Junior catcher Brandon Biggane (Rensselaer, N.Y.) is another key cog in the offense returning this year, having hit .319 with five home runs and 30 RBIs last season, while producing a strong OPS (On-Base plus slugging percentage) of .890, the best of the returnees. 

But Bates did lose some of their top hitters, so other players will need to step up this season.

"In the infield, sophomore Gibby Sullivan (Yarmouth, Maine) has come a long way in a short amount of time," Martin said. "He's really matured as a good infielder and his swing looks really good right now. Seniors Noah Jankowski (Methuen, Mass.) and Dylan Azcárate (Tiburon, Calif.) are two guys that have seen some time for us. I know Dylan will be behind the dish for us quite a bit this year and Janks is going to be at first base. We look for him to be a guy to step up in the lineup and get in the middle to fill one of those spots." 

Martin says that newcomer Keagan Ryan (Salem, N.H.) has looked really good so far in the outfield. Sophomore outfielder Jack Margiloff (Rye, N.Y.) didn't play a lot early on last year, but gained valuable experience later in the season. Martin also expects to see senior Noah Ackerman (Armonk, N.Y.) contribute this year. 

The Bobcats are excited about some of the arms they have available this season, as Bates is returning the vast majority of their pitching staff.

Senior Corbin McAlpine (Boxborough, Mass.) had a breakthrough year in 2023, going 3-1 with a 2.45 ERA in seven appearances, four starts. Opponents hit just .237 against McAlpine. Senior Sam Hough (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.) tossed a pair of complete games, beating Colby and Skidmore last year. Senior Luke Linnehan (Hingham, Mass.) led the team in innings pitched last year with 45, winning three games and striking out a team-high 33 batters. 

Junior Matthew Shrake (Chicago, Ill.), junior Ian McAslan (Baltimore, Md.), and senior Jack Potash (Stratford, Conn.) were all key cogs out of the bullpen last year, with Shrake leading the team with 13 appearances, and Potash notching a pair of saves. Martin is also looking forward to seeing if senior Teddie Nelson (Marshfield, Mass.) can have a breakthrough campaign this year, as the big right-hander has been working on his mechanics and is throwing hard. 

"We're only two weeks in, so this is a small sample size, but I have no doubt that these guys will continue to move forward and progress as the year goes on," Martin said. "They've been waiting for this, so they all look pretty good. I'm definitely excited to see what the senior class can do as far as anchoring our staff." 

The Bobcats are beginning their season in Virginia and they're taking a trip to Tucson, Ariz. in March. Their first home game is scheduled for Wednesday, April 3 against Husson. 

 "We've got a great group of guys," Martin said. "We're having a ton of fun. We're bringing good vibes every day. We're ready to take the field Thursday against Averett and see what happens."