“When Winthrop welcomes Morehead State to Founders Field in Rock Hill, S.C. for a three-game series this weekend, the Kean brothers (Woodstock, Ont.) will be competing for bragging rights.

Older brother Tyler serves as the director of analytics at Winthrop, while the younger Alex is in his junior season at MSU.

“The opportunity to go against my brother this year is unbelievable to me,” Alex said.

“The chances that we both ended up at a Division 1 baseball program and to compete against each other at the same time is spectacular. We've both come a very long way, and I’m nothing but grateful to everyone who has given both Ty and I this incredible opportunity.”

“Matt Spatafora has seen a lot in his decade and a half at Niagara University.

His first season with the program as an assistant coach in 2012 saw the Purple Eagles finish 19-29 and on the outside of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference tournament.

Twelve years later, he helped lead the team to a 38-17 record and the 2024 MAAC championship.

When then head coach Rob McCoy departed to take the top job at William & Mary College that offseason, a position that became vacant after Mike McRae (Niagara Falls, Ont.) left for Rutgers, it was Spatafora the Niagara athletic department tabbed to take over.”

Canadian Baseball Network writer Matt Betts identifies five Canadian Division I players to watch as we inch closer to the start of the college season.

“It feels like Joey Hawkins was meant to be a Bear.

A Missouri State Bear.

Hawkins (Whitby, Ont.) arrived on the MSU campus in 2012 as a wide-eyed freshman infielder off a standout high school career with the Ontario Blue Jays.

Over his four college seasons, he became the anchor of a team that made a trip to the Super Regionals in 2015 and came within one game of the College World Series. “