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A native of Manlius, NY, Ken Harring enters his fifth season as head coach of the UMass Lowell baseball program and has guided the River Hawks to three straight NCAA Tournament bids and a four-year record of 124-78, an average of 31 wins per season. With 18 freshmen and sophomores on its 2008 roster, UMass Lowell compiled a 26-24 record and advanced to the Northeast-10 Conference Tournament. Over the season, Harring earned his 100th victory at UMass Lowell and the 200th of his career. The 2007 season saw the River Hawks go 33-20, marking the second straight year and ninth time in school history UML has eclipsed the 30-victory plateau. In 2006, the River Hawks (37-14) posted the second-highest win total in school history and captured their fifth Northeast-10 Conference Tournament championship in six years. UML also earned its second straight and eighth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last nine years. In his first season at UML, Harring led the River Hawks to a 28-20 record, up from a 22-21 clip in 2004. UML returned to the NCAA Tournament as the No. 4 seed in the region, where it defeated No. 1 Franklin Pierce (8-2) before losing to No. 2 Southern Connecticut (10-3) and the Ravens (16-11). In Harring's three seasons, the River Hawks have had eight players named to the ABCA/Rawlings All-Northeast Region teams and 26 players named to the NE-10 All-Conference teams. Harring's appointment to the UML post followed a stellar four-year period as head coach at Saint Anselm College and four years as an assistant at Northeastern University. The 2004 NE-10 Coach of the Year, Harring guided Saint Anselm to its best season in school history with a 30-22 overall record (24-8 NE-10). He led the Hawks to the 2004 NE-10 regular season championship as well as its first NCAA Tournament bid in school history. Harring's teams at Saint Anselm significantly improved with each season, culminating with the record-breaking season in 2004. After struggling to a 9-35 finish in 2001, Harring guided the Hawks to a 17-32 clip in 2002, which included a 15-17 showing in the NE-10 (fourth place in the six-team Pepin Division). The 2003 Saint Anselm squad posted a record of 23-20 - its first winning season in 23 years - and captured the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division II championship. Along the way, the Hawks finished third in the NE-10 Pepin Division and garnered their first appearance in the NE-10 Tournament. Harring was a four-year player at Division I Le Moyne College where he helped the Dolphins to NCAA Tournament bids in 1986, 1987 and 1989. Inducted into Le Moyne's Gold Wave Hall of Fame in 2003, Harring helped the Dolphins to a collective record of 54-18-1 in his junior and senior seasons (.740), Le Moyne's first years as a Division I program. Among Le Moyne's Division I leaders, Harring ranks second in batting (.367), third in slugging percentage (.609) and 21st in hits (108). He led the Dolphins in runs, hits and doubles in his junior and senior years. After graduating from Le Moyne with a degree in business administration, Harring spent two years in the Atlanta Braves organization with the Durham Bulls of the Carolina League where his manager was former Red Sox skipper Grady Little. Harring accepted his first coaching position at Northeastern University, where he remained from 1996-99. During his stay, the Huskies posted a collective 105-88 record and captured the 1997 America East Conference Tournament. That year, NU advanced to the NCAA Tournament where it defeated Bethune-Cookman (19-3, 7-4) before falling to Stanford and Cal State-Fullerton in the West Regional. Shortly after his appointment to Saint Anselm, Harring served as the manager of the Keene Swamp Bats, leading them to the 2000 New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) championship. Harring and his wife, Shauna, live in Amesbury, MA, with their daughter Mikaela (7) and son Jacob (4). |
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