The 2020 baseball season was cut short due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Student-athletes had questions about the future and uncertainty if they would ever play the game they loved again.

For Molloy, graduate students Timothy Panetta, Sean Hogan, James Messina, and Patrick Kennedy took the opportunity of an extra season and made the most of it.

"We came into the year with the goal of the ECC Championship in mind," Panetta said. "From last year, with the season being shortened due to Covid and having the high expectations, it made us hungrier."

The Lions accomplished their goal of winning the 2021 East Coast Conference title and earned a berth in the NCAA East Regional.

"Having that extra time from last year and staying hungry really paid off in the end," Panetta commented.

The pandemic was one of many obstacles the group faced during their career with the Lions.

 The first came in 2017. Molloy made the ECC Final, but fell to LIU Post, 9-7.

In the championship, Hogan, who was a freshman, struck out to end the game, but the East Meadow, N.Y. native took the experience and used it to learn from.

"Losing is never fun," Hogan said. "Every loss puts a sting in your back and you never forget it. Losing in the championship always stings, but the greatest people in the world learn from their losses."

During the 2018 season, the maroon and white found themselves back in the title game. With a runner on second, Messina, who was a sophomore, grounded out to second in the ninth, and the team lost 3-2 to St. Thomas Aquinas. Like Hogan, Messina took a lesson from the moment.

"If I come up in a spot like that again, I am going to come through for the guys," he said.

In 2019, the Lions failed to make the postseason after posting a 17-27 record, but like the previous two seasons, the team used the down year as a lesson.

The Lions started the 2020 campaign and everything seemed to be going well. The team was 7-4 and turned the page on the season before.

"There was an immediate difference from the year before," Hogan said. "All of us who came back felt the sting of not making the playoffs and never wanted to feel it again. We were pretty determined as leaders to do whatever we had to do to never feel that again."

With the season trending in the right direction, the season ended in disappointment for a fourth consecutive year.

Molloy saw the 2021 season as a new opportunity, and it started with Messina leading off the year.

"Stepping into the batter's box at Felician, I thought, 'wow I get to do this one more time.' I was so happy to be in the box one more time," he said.

The Lions, who were picked first in the ECC Preseason Poll, started 3-5 but didn't panic due to past experiences.

"We started 3-13 our freshman year and 6-11 our sophomore year," Kennedy said. "We started 3-5 and some people were on edge. But we've been through this before, and we've made the conference tournament.  In 2018, I learned you may not start as hot as you want, but the season goes on. There will always be ups and downs."

The Lions went on to win seven straight games and improved their record to 10-5, but then the team went on a 10-day pause due to Covid protocols.

"Setbacks didn't matter," said Hogan, who was selected the ECC Player of the Year and named to the First Team. "This was a gift to us. This year wasn't supposed to happen. We were supposed to be grownups at this point. We got the opportunity to play a kid's game for one more year. I don't think any punch that was thrown our way was going to stop us from having fun and winning baseball games."

The team finished the regular season 19-9 overall and 15-4 in conference play.

In the first game of the conference tournament, Panetta, who an All-ECC First Team selection, took the mound.

"The only thought going into that start was, 'I get one last home game."

The Broad Channel, N.Y. native made the most of it and struck out 11 batters in 7.1 innings pitched.

STAC tied the game at three, but the maroon and white didn't panic scoring a run in the top of the ninth to win game one 4-3.

Bouncing back in games was something Molloy did often. The Lions came back from 10-2 against STAC to win 13-12 April 24 and rallied from a seven-deficit to top Mercy, 8-7, May 8.

"We had supreme confidence in ourselves that we can get the job done at any time," said Messina, who was an All-ECC Second Team selection. "With everyone in the lineup, we knew we could score runs and come back in any game this year."

In game two, the Lions topped STAC 2-1 to win the 2021 ECC crown.

"It feels like a two-year journey. It started in the fall of 2019. That's when we decided the goal was to win an ECC Championship and to go to regional," Messina said. "If you want to define the culture of this team, it is we love playing this game together as long as we can."

The four graduate students made the most of the 2021 season. They were able to achieve their goal of winning a conference title and now turn their attention to the NCAA East Regional, where they will continue to journey.

"It's like having dessert at dinner," Hogan said. "It's the best feeling in the world. Everything we've wanted to accomplish for five years, we finally did it. Now we get to do it again. It can't get better than that."