State of Sports: Reigning Division I baseball champs rarely have history on their side
Apr. 5—HISTORY tells us that winning back-to-back championships in NHIAA Division I baseball is tougher than repeating in any other NHIAA sport. Go ahead and study the list of past NHIAA champions and you'll find this to be true.
Since 1948, when the NHIAA first recognized a champion in baseball, six programs have won consecutive baseball championships in the NHIAA's largest division, which was first called Class A, then Class L and is now Division I. No team has ever won three in a row.
Teams claim consecutive championships in NHIAA baseball's other divisions far more frequently. A quick look at Division II shows Goffstown won in 2000 and in 2001; Portsmouth won four titles in a row beginning in 2008; Portsmouth also prevailed in 2017 and 2018; and Hollis-Brookline won the last two Division II titles.
Extend your search to before the 2000 season and you'll find many more programs that earned consecutive titles. So, what makes winning back-to-back championships in Division I so tough?
"I think because it's the large division with the sheer number of kids there's more parity, and pitching tends to be a little bit deeper — and that's definitely not an insult to the lower divisions," said Londonderry coach Brent Demas, who guided the Lancers to the Division I title in 2023. "Depending on who's on the mound, a game may not be the mismatch it may look like in the standings. If a team doesn't have a pitcher who can beat you, then that's probably one of the handful of teams that aren't in the playoffs. Everybody in the playoffs is going to have somebody who can win on any given day."
Here are the baseball programs that have won back-to-back championships in the NHIAA's top division: Nashua (1951 and 1952), Portsmouth (1964 and 1965), Manchester Memorial (1970 and 1971), Nashua (1993 and 1994), Keene (1996 and 1997) and Exeter (2017 and 2018). Remember, this is going back to 1948.
Kevin McQueen, Exeter's coach in 2017 and 2018, also coached at Timberlane from 1984 to 1986, when the Owls competed in Division II. He said there are primarily two reasons Division I programs struggle to win consecutive titles:
—Division I teams typically have more quality pitchers than teams in the other divisions.
—Division I teams usually have deeper lineups.
"More than anything, I think that's really the difference — what you're facing in the way of pitching and then also the depth of lineups," McQueen said. "Most teams have really long lineups. Your guy (pitcher) is gonna have to work even at the bottom end of it. There's some outstanding players in all the divisions, but I think the depth of the lineups (in Division I) tends to be more just because of the populations you're drawing from.
"Most years when you do your tournament preview, you probably are looking at anywhere from six to 10 teams that would have a chance to win it if all breaks right for them. We lost in the first round of the tournament as a top-four seed in both 2015 and 2016, which is an exact example of what we're talking about. Lost to two great pitchers two straight years."
As in any sport, winning a championship usually involves some good fortune as well. The 2017 Exeter team learned that the difference between winning and losing can be paper thin.
Exeter faced Spaulding in the semifinals that season, and Spaulding led 6-4 in the bottom of the seventh inning. After Cody Morissette and Ben Malgeri were retired at the start of the inning, the next five Exeter hitters reached base and allowed the Blue Hawks to advance with a 7-6 victory. Exeter beat Bedford in the Division I championship game days later.
"Certainly Spaulding gave us all we wanted," McQueen said.
As we begin the 2024 NHIAA baseball season (hopefully soon), there are more than a handful of teams that appear capable of winning the Division I championship this season, and Londonderry is among them. Last year was the fifth time Demas has led the Lancers to the Division I championship, but his teams have never made it to the championship game the following season.
Londonderry's best chance to win back-to-back titles may have been in 2020, but the season was canceled because of COVID.
"Would we have won? Who knows, but we looked really good on paper that year," Demas said. "We feel really good about our chances this season, but there are a lot of teams that should feel that way.
"For whatever reason, Division I baseball tends to have — I would argue — the most parity of all the male (NHIAA) sports. We've never gone back-to-back, but for us it's the same approach as every year."
