The former Edward Little standout makes her mark at Bryant College.
By Kevin Mills
Staff Writer

Nicole Keene has something to look forward to next season.

The Bryant College pitcher and former Edward Little four-sport athlete is closing in on 300 strikeouts, putting her already record-breaking numbers further out of reach. Though Keene should hit the 300 plateau early next season, that is not the lofty number she may have in mind over the offseason.

“It’s a pretty big milestone, but I’ve pitched a lot of innings and put in a lot of hard work,” said Keene, who completed her junior season last week as Bryant narrowly missed a postseason berth. “So maybe I’d like to see 400. We’ll see how that goes.”

If you know Keene at all, you know you can’t doubt her determination. If she’s shooting for 400 or more, you can bet she’ll probably get there.

“If I had more people like Nicole, I’d be a yearly success,” said Bryant coach Lisa-Ann Wallace. “As much as I enjoy coaching her, I enjoy watching her compete at this level. She’s just grace in motion.”

It is that kind of drive that has made her one of Bryant’s best ever and has helped spark the resurgence of the college’s program. Keene and Wallace arrived at Bryant the same year. Bryant won just four games the previous year, and won 10 when Wallace and Keene arrived. Last year, the Bulldogs’ ECAC Tournament appearance was the school’s first in eight years. Though Wallace certainly has been crucial to the turnaround, she gives tremendous credit to Keene.

“She’s pretty much carried the team for three years,” said Wallace. “I knew she would be the core that we’d build the program around. Not too often do you walk into a situation and have the most important piece already in place. She’s the foundation where everything started. It was exciting, and it is still exciting. There’s a certain electricity when she takes the mound. I feel it, the players feel it and the fans feel it.”

Wallace knew absolutely nothing about Keene when she arrived at Bryant. It took some time for her to learn about Keene’s success at EL.

“That was a real nice door prize,” said Wallace of Keene. “She is a dominant force, not only for a team but in the league. She’s the go-to person. If the bases are loaded and there are no outs there’s a chance nobody’s going to score. It’s not only about domination, it’s about her desire to win.”

Between her pitching and her bat, she was a consistent producer for the Red Eddies. That didn’t change in college.

“I expected the level of play to be a little higher than high school and it definitely was,” said Keene, who was also a standout soccer player and member of the EL basketball and track teams. “Personally, I knew I was going to work as hard as I did in high school and that it would pay off.”

It took a little more concentration and self-motivation, but it didn’t take long for Keene to make a difference for Bryant.

“My biggest adjustment was motivating myself,” said Keene, whose father, Gene, coached her in high school. “I was used to having my dad yelling down my back. He was always there to push me hard. Here, my coach has 11 players to do that for. That’s been a big change. So I just had to dig down deeper.”

She worked harder and developed more pitches. She entered college with a fastball and rise ball. Now she’s throwing a curve, a drop and a change. She’s also been batting second in the lineup as a lefty. She batted from the right side through high school. She feels she’s developed a better understanding of how to pitch.

“I think my experience in college, I’ve learned to watch the batters more and where they are in the box,” said Keene, who hopes to work in at-bats from the right side next year also. “By looking at them, I can see if she’s off the plate, and I can throw a curve or if she’s on the plate I can use the rise ball.”

In college, she doesn’t have the weak links in the batting order that she could feast on in high school. This season she went 10-8, with a number of hard-luck losses. The 10 wins were one shy of the school record for a season. She had a 0.99 earned run average, sixth in the conference. In 18 starts, she had seven shutouts, allowed just 17 earned runs and opponents batted just .213 against her. Her 108 strikeouts, eighth in the Northeast-10, set the season record for the third straight year.

“The batters she’s striking out, she’s not picking on the small fish,” said Wallace. “She’s striking out some good hitters.

“She’s developed as a pitcher, being able to understand what to throw, where to throw, when to layoff and when to go at a hitter hard. She has a much firmer grasp of being able to pitch to Division II type hitters.”

She also was one of the team’s top hitters. She batted .288 and was third on the team in average, runs (14), bases (36) and hits (32). She was second on the squad with five stolen bases.

She’s maintained impressive numbers even though Bryant has been a young and building program. She currently ranks first, second and third for most strikeouts in a season. She’s also adding to her overall career record for strikeouts and is just seven shy of 300.

“It’s a pretty good achievement on my part, but I don’t really like to look at my personal stats,” said Keene. “I’d rather look at the team as a whole.”

It is her impact on the team that Wallace especially appreciates.

“She’s unflappable,” said Wallace. “She’s just a rock. It’s unusual to see a female so in control of their emotions in all of her situations. The amount of pressure she puts on herself, you wouldn’t know whether we’re up by eight runs or down by eight runs when she’s on the mound. She’s awesome to watch. In her freshman year, she faced Nebraska-Omaha as an 18-year old. Then went on to win the National Championship that year, and she pitched five scoreless innings against them.”

This season, Keene had a familiar role; Bryant was a small team because a few players didn’t return. The squad had just one senior and seven underclassmen. With just two pitchers on the team, Keene had to pitch more often and provide leadership to a young team.

“I personally like to take a backseat role,” said Keene. “I lead by example. I hold myself to such a high standard, and I expect my teammates to follow me in that. They definitely did follow. They really pushed themselves.”

Despite Keene’s success and the turnaround of the program, Bryant still missed out on the postseason. Still, with much of this squad back next year and Keene on the mound, the strikeouts are sure to ring up and who knows what else.

“The sky’s the limit because of Nicole,” said Wallace. “Bryant will do very well. It’s going to be exciting to watch her senior year, exciting and sad.”