Alex Zachary begins his fourth season as an assistant coach with the Nichols College baseball team in 2022.
The 2021 Bison posted a 15-9 record, which was good for a .625 winning percentage – the highest for the program since the 2005 campaign. The Bison established program-records for dingers (29), on-base percentage (.444), and slugging pct. (.542), and also recorded the second-highest team batting average (.343) in program history. Nichols hurlers fanned 228 batters in 2021, second only to the 254 registered during his first season at the helm of the program in 2019. Nichols pitchers held opponents to a .256 batting average in 2021, which is the fourth-lowest mark ever recorded in Dudley.
Seven Bison received All-CCC honors in 2021, highlighted by CCC Player of the Year Kyle Bouchard, Pitcher of the Year Jack Dicenso, and Rookie of the Year Brennan Hyde. Bouchard and Dicenso, along with Nate Cormier and DJ Caron, went on to grab All-New England Honors while Bouchard was named to the All-America Fourth Team.
The Bison were off to a scorching 8-2 start in 2020, highlighted by a doubleheader sweep of Bates and a season-ending win over Keene State. Nichols – which was a perfect 4-0 at the Russmatt Invitational in Florida – was the last Division III school in the country to play (and win) a game before the season was stopped due to COVID-19. The Bison recorded 10+ hits in seven of their 10 games in 2020 and ended the season with .310 team batting average.
In his first season on the bench at Nichols, the Bison won 21 games – the fourth-highest mark in program history – and returned to the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) playoffs following a one-year hiatus. The Bison set single-season records for home runs (24) and earned run average (ERA) (3.77), while placing second in doubles (78), fourth in stolen bases (69) and hits (391), fifth in RBI (212), and sixth in runs (240) in program history. Five student-athletes were named to the all-conference team: Christian Naccari (First Team), Kyle Bouchard (Second Team), Joe Assenza (Second Team), Nathaniel Cormier (Third Team), and Brendan Duffy (Second Team); Duffy was also named CCC Rookie of the Year. Four student-athletes garnered CCC Academic All-Conference honors.
Zachary spent two years as a member of the Eastern Connecticut State baseball program (2016-17), earning American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) Third Team honors as a junior and First Team accolades as a senior. During that span, he batted .391 with 124 hits, 85 runs, 19 home runs, 80 RBI, 36 stolen bases, a .685 slugging pct., and 217 total bases.
The 2017 Little East Conference Player of the Year started 79 games over two years for the Warriors and ripped off a 35-game hitting streak that spanned two seasons. Zachary reached base in the final 20 games of his collegiate career as the Warriors compiled a 44-35 mark during his career in Willimantic, Conn.
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