PITTSBURGH — Ten games into the season, Ryan Fennell and the La Roche College baseball team were headed nowhere.

They wound up somewhere they had never been — in the NCAA Division III Tournament as Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference champions.

The Redhawks were 1-9 to begin the season and Fennell, a Butler graduate and the team's designated hitter, was benched after a 3-for-25 start at the plate.

“I was terrible,” Fennell admitted. “I'm used to playing first base in games and being a DH requires a lot of focus on staying in the game mentally.

“It took me a while to adjust to that role. Sitting down for a while was just what I needed.”

When Fennell got back in the lineup, he helped the Redhawks catch fire. The team won 23 of its next 31 games, including capturing the AMCC Tournament title for the first time in school history. La Roche finished the year 25-19 and won a game in the national tourney.

Fennell was one of a school-record nine all-conference players.

He wound up hitting .370, collecting 34 hits in 75 at-bats through one stretch. He hit a scorching .515 (17-for-33) in conference games and was named AMCC Player of the Week for his performance in the conference tournament.

Fennell was 7-for-13 in the tourney, including a 5-for-5 performance in the championship game. He had eight RBIs, four doubles and scored three runs in the tournament.

“Ryan just caught fire and hasn't cooled off,” Knoch graduate and La Roche coach Chase Rowe said. “No one could get him out in our conference.”

Rowe was named AMCC Coach of the Year for the second consecutive season. His team hit just two home runs all year.

“We play a small-ball type of game,” Fennell said. “Chase was that type of player and he was successful at it. He wants his team to play the same way.

“We score runs on bunts and timely hitting. During batting practice, we go through rounds of just hitting the ball to the opposite field.”

La Roche plays on a good-sized diamond, featuring field dimensions of 412 feet to center field and 385 feet to the power alleys.

“Our pitching has been fantastic and we play good defense,” Rowe said. “We win with team speed and hustle. And we're focused on the game better than most of our opponents.

“I love having this kind of team. This is the kind of team you can win a lot of games with.”

He loves having Fennell, only a sophomore, in the middle of his lineup as well.

“He's that bat in the middle that good teams have,” Rowe said. “Ryan squares the ball up and hits it hard.”

La Roche also has the highest team grade-point average in the program's history at 2.9.

“That covers 35 guys, so that's pretty good,” Rowe said.

Fennell is majoring in business management. He's done a little work out of the bullpen as well, sporting a 2.84 earned run average and six strikeouts in six innings.

“We've got plenty of pitchers, so I haven't been needed much,” Fennell said. “I hit 90 miles per hour during our pro day. If I make it to the next level, it will be as a pitcher.

“But we've got plenty of work to do here first.”