Staff file photo / Neel Madhavan Ursuline’s AJ Snyder (9) swings at a pitch during last year’s district final against Canfield at Bob Cene Park on May 22.

YOUNGSTOWN — Ursuline took its licks early and often during the first half of the baseball season last year.

The Fighting Irish started 1-4 and had a pair of four-game losing streaks during the regular season.

But come playoff time, Ursuline hit its stride. The Irish won five straight games to end the season, winning their second district title in three years, before losing to eventual state champion West Branch.

“We were right around .500, and we were really kind of inconsistent,” head coach Paul Kempe said. “We really challenged our guys before the tournament to be more consistent if we wanted to reach our goals. … They took the challenge head on and proved it with the run we went on through the districts, playing three really good teams, who were extremely high seeds, and making it to regionals.”

Now, with several players back from that squad, Ursuline is trying to build off the momentum from last season and carry that into this year.

“I think when we struggled, a lot of it was on us,” Kempe said. “Once you go into every season, we look back as a staff at what are the things we struggled at. How can we build our offseason to hopefully not have those issues? But our guys have done a great job so far. Our goal is to continue to play a high-level schedule and compete with our district moving forward. We did a good job of that to end the year and really hope we can build off of it.”

Despite graduating five seniors from last year’s squad, the Irish return eight players who had significant playing time, including seniors Anthony Triveri, Joe Balog and Thomas Kosovan and juniors Luke Kollar, Rowan Urbach and AJ Snyder.

Kollar had a breakout sophomore season last year for Ursuline, leading the team with a .344 batting average and 22 RBIs. Urbach also put together a strong campaign with a .312 average and was the only player on the team besides now-graduated CJ Frasco to hit a home run last season.

Meanwhile, Triveri batted .310 and Balog posted a .219, while Synder hit .232 at the plate.

With such a big returning group, Kempe and the rest of Ursuline’s coaching staff have emphasized “taking that next step” to the Irish’s returners.

“We have seven or eight guys who have played a ton of varsity baseball for us,” Kempe said. “It’s obviously nice having that back and seeing their maturity. In the offseason, they’ve grown in their bodies. Now, let’s take that next step.”

As a result of Ursuline’s returning experience, Kempe said some younger players might alternate between junior varsity and varsity on a week-to-week basis, depending on whether or not they’re needed for games.

“I think that’s going to be different than in the past,” Kempe said. “They’ve shown they can play varsity baseball, but there’s going to be times where if we don’t need them on varsity, they gotta continue to work and get those reps. But I think that’s a credit to our kids and the talent we have and bringing a lot of guys back. There’s some young kids who we feel really good about this year as well.”

Triveri, Balog, Urbach, Kosovan and Brady Philibin all made multiple appearances on the mound last year and will continue to make up the core of Ursuline’s pitching rotation.

Triveri, who started the Irish’s district final win over Canfield, led the way with a 4-3 record in nine appearances with a 2.14 ERA. Balog was 2-2 with a 3.73 ERA in seven appearances, while Urbach had a 3.11 ERA in five appearances and Kosovan threw a 2.49 in seven appearances.

But Kempe emphasized how this year’s group is probably the most athletic team the Irish have had in his four years as head coach, with a number of players having the capability and versatility to play different positions.

“I think the last few years we always went into it knowing, ‘Hey, this guy’s going to be here unless this person pitches,'” Kempe said. “I think this year, it’s a fun thing to do because it’s allowing our kids to show themselves at different spots. You got a guy like Luke Kollar, who started all year for us in the outfield, but he could also play infield for us. Joe Balog is a kid who’s done that a bunch of times (too). … So I think that’s something we’re going to use to our benefit.”

With the expanded divisions, Ursuline goes from Division II down to Division IV. But Kempe said they’ll continue to face many of the teams that they used to see in Division II, such as Canfield, Hubbard, West Branch and Salem.

“We know we’re going to see those teams there, so that doesn’t really change,” Kempe said. “Our mindset is, let’s play the best baseball we can at the end of the year. Then we gotta go prove ourselves in the tournament with our schedule, with who we play. I think last year was a great example of how when you play quality opponents every week, it’s going to prepare you for the tournament. So I really think it helped us with making that run, and that’s why we continue to do that. But the teams we see in the Division IV districts, whoever we may see, are going to be good baseball teams, so we gotta be ready to go.”

The Irish open the 2025 season against Lakeview on March 29 at 1 p.m. at home at Bob Cene Park.