Kenyon College Athletics

Erin O'Neill, a 2002 Kenyon graduate, became the fifth head coach of Kenyon Softball in 2011. She enters her 12th season and hoping to field another strong team while pushing for the NCAC Tournament. 

Due to the CoVID pandemic, O'Neill's 2021 squad played a shortened schedule. 

In 2019, the Ladies started the year with a 13-3 record during their annual spring break trip to Florida. After a rough patch against some strong Ohio teams, the Ladies and O'Neill fought hard in conference competition. A 9-7 NCAC mark paired with a doubleheader sweep against Hiram College on April 27 clinched a berth in the four-team NCAC Tournament. By season's end, the Ladies had placed five players on the All-NCAC team while Grace Pilz and Grace Finn earned all-region honors. Plus, Pilz's slugging percentage of .738 was tops in the NCAC and broke the previous Kenyon record set in 2013  

During the 2018 season, Kenyon started the year 12-4, however, once in NCAC play, the Ladies struggled going 3-13. By season's end they finished 19-21 and placed three on the All-NCAC team including Madi Maldonado, Grace Finn and Lauren Graf. O'Neill tutored Maldonado to three all-conference nods plus she left school as the all-time leader in runs scored (150) and stolen bases (38).

During the 2016 and 2017 campaigns, Kenyon put together marks of 17-22-1 and 13-27, respectively.  

In 2015, Kenyon put together is third straight 20+ win season going a program-best 29-11. That mark included a 15-game winning streak early in the season which was the longest in program history.

A year prior, Kenyon posted a 22-16 record. The 2013 season proved to be one for the record books as the Ladies went on to break 26 different team and individual records. The team set a new benchmark - at the time - for total wins in season (22), tied the record for most conference wins in a season (10), and made their first trip to the North Coast Athletic Conference Tournament since 2006. The Ladies were led that season by NCAC Player of the Year and all-region selection Jamie Samuel, who alone broke 10 Kenyon single-season and career records and finished the season as the nation’s leader in doubles hit per game.

In her collegiate playing days, O'Neill was a four-time All-North Coast Athletic Conference (NCAC) player and the first Kenyon woman to be named to the National Fastpitch Coaches Association's (NFCA) All-Region team. She still holds the Kenyon career record for runs scored (104) and ranks among Kenyon's top-five all-time leaders in batting average, on-base percentage, hits, stolen bases, and total bases. In 2003, she was named to the NCAC's prestigious 20th Anniversary Team.

Softball was not her only game, though. O'Neill was a sharp-shooting guard for the Ladies' basketball team and concluded her career as one of the 10 best three-point shooters in program history. In 2005, she came back to Kenyon and served as an assistant women's basketball coach for two seasons.

After departing the basketball scene, O'Neill returned to the diamond, this time at Case Western Reserve University, where she spent two seasons as the head softball coach. Prior to that, O'Neill honed her softball coaching skills as a graduate assistant at John Carroll University and as a head junior varsity coach at St. Ursula Academy in Toledo, Ohio.