Staff file photo / Neel Madhavan Ursuline’s Andrew Kirila fires in a pitch during last season. Kirila will anchor the Irish’s rotation in 2023.

YOUNGSTOWN — When Paul Kempe took over the Ursuline baseball program, he had dreams of restoring the Irish back to their heyday.

Before last year, Ursuline hadn’t had a winning record since 2016 and hadn’t been able to get out of the sectional round of the playoffs three times in the previous five seasons.

Last season, Kempe’s first as skipper, the Irish went 18-9 and won their first district title since 2015. Now, he wants to build on that success and continue to maintain that level on a consistent basis.

Even though Ursuline is replacing five seniors from that group, the Irish return a lot of key pieces this year with a group that provides a lot of depth and versatility.

“We feel really good about the guys we bring back,” Kempe said. “We bring back seven or eight guys who have started multiple games and return a great group of lettermen. We really like our pitching depth, we return five of our top six hitters and I think our team speed is something that is going to be just huge for us this year offensively.”

Kempe feels that the team’s pitching depth is something that they’re going to rely on this season, and it all starts with senior ace and Walsh signee Andrew Kirila.

Kirila started Ursuline’s Division III regional semifinal loss last season to eventual state champion Apple Creek Waynedale. He posted a 7-1 record as a starter with an ERA of 1.67 and led the Irish in strikeouts and innings pitched.

“Drew does so much outside of what we do together on his own in the offseason,” Kempe said. “That work he put in, you could see what the results were last year. He’s even stepped it up a notch this year. He’s been in the weight room getting stronger and really building his legs up. It’s good to have your No. 1 pitcher from the year before back. Drew’s going to be our guy, and he’s going to be our leader in that rotation in that depth that we have.”

The rest of Ursuline’s pitching depth consists of senior Tom Groner and juniors Jack Ericson, Johnny Cambert and CJ Frasco. After starting as a freshman, Frasco missed all of last season with an injury but returns this year. Cambert was only able to play half of last season after transferring in, but the Irish will have him for the full season this year.

Groner made nine appearances on the mound last season and was 2-1 as a starter with a 1.50 ERA. Ericson and Cambert combined for seven appearances.

“Brian Frasco, one of our assistants, does a great job with our pitchers,” Kempe said. “Tommy came on huge for us last year, plus having the juniors back … we feel really good about them. Also, we have some young kids and some other guys who pitched later in the year for us who we’re working on now. We want them to get in early just to build depth and things like that.”

Hitting-wise, the Irish bring back five of their top six batters from last season, with the biggest loss being Brady Shannon, who is now at Central Florida.

“It’s extremely hard to replace a Brady Shannon — just his overall approach to the game is why he’s playing high-level Division I baseball right now,” Kempe said. “The biggest thing we lose with Brady is his leadership. We have a big senior class (this year) and that’s one thing…we need guys to step up and fill that role because we lost a kid who’s just a natural-born leader.”

Luca Ricchiuti and his team-high .433 average are back to lead-off the top of the lineup, as well as Dylan Casey (.342), Marc Manning (.194) and Nick Bako (.418).

“Tom Groner really came on and turned into a middle of the lineup guy,” Kempe said. “Dylan Casey’s a guy who’s always between the three to five spot who’s got power and has speed. We feel good about Marc Manning and Nick Bako because they’re the fastest guys on our team. We just need them to put the ball in play because they are very lethal on the bases.”

Despite the tough challenge of moving up to Division II this year, Kempe feels his team’s depth and returning experience provides them with versatility to play the different styles needed on an opponent-by-opponent basis.

“We’re going to do whatever is necessary to win,” Kempe said. “If we have to play small ball, that’s something we’ve really honed in on offensively and defensively this past month because once you get in late in the tournament, those little things count and that’s something that (in the regional semifinal last year) Waynedale did a great job of. They hit and run, put the ball down and that’s why they went on to win.

“It was great getting back to that regional spot and letting our guys taste it for the first time. … There’s little things that depending on the game and situation — if we have to do something different one day to the other, we have to put ourselves in the best spot forward to go win the ballgame.”

After getting rained out this weekend, Ursuline is scheduled to open the new season Monday at Champion.