Rivier baseball coach Louie Bernardini and his team should finally see game action this weekend after being quarantined due to COVID protocols. (Photo courtesy of Rivier University)

NASHUA – Rivier University baseball coach Louie Bernardini had just gotten off the phone a couple of weeks ago, discussing his team’s excitement about starting the 2021 season after having last year’s cut way short by the pandemic.

A couple of minutes later, the phone rang again. His season, which was supposed to start back then in a couple of days, was going to be postponed for over two weeks thanks to COVID-19 protocols.

Welcome to 2021.

“It’s just something everyone has to deal with,” Bernardini said. “We just adjust. It’s a different time.”

The good news is the Raiders are set to emerge from their quarantine with their first practice in nearly two weeks today, and, barring any other COVID related issues, will have a home-and-home four game series with Norwich University this weekend. Saturday they are headed to Vermont at Norwich; Sunday’s doubleheader is expected to be at Holman Stadium beginning at 1 p.m., but no fans will be allowed to attend.

Postponed were doubleheaders at Dean College and home vs. Albertus Magnus the last two weekends. Bernardini said the school will try to see if they can reschedule them.

In the meantime, the Raiders are back at it today. Not all the players had to quarantine, and they were working out informally on their own.

“It’s right back to the grind,” Bernardini said. “After a long layoff, the timing at the plate hitting will be off. That’s the biggest adjustment. But after a day or two they should be fine.”

And the pitchers, he said, will have to ramp up their velocity to 100 percent. The Raiders had been working out as a team since mid-February, have had a few intra squad scrimmages, but no game action, obviously. And Bernardini said during those he had some “hard conversation with a couple of players, they took it as just playing with their buddies, not taking it seriously enough.”

He doesn’t expect that to be a problem now, but he’s not sure if the team will scrimmage internally this week.

“We’ll have to see how everybody is,” he said. “See how things unfold.”

Players may have been hitting off a tee, playing catch at home, etc., staying in shape. But rust will certainly exist, he said.

He’s looking forward to seeing what this squad can do. Bernardini, before the sudden break in the action, was impressed with sophomore catcher Kevin Collins, a Bishop Guertin alum. “He’d really been a surprise in practice,” he said.

Another local, pitcher Jake Maine from Merrimack, “will be our most dependable bullpen arm while serving as a strong defensive replacement when others pitch,” Bernardini said.

He’s also looking for big things from Salem’s Corey Cochran, both on the mound and in the infield. Another New Hampshire player is reliever-outfielder Pat Quinn from Seabrook.

Rivier has had players on campus the entire year, and has made arrangements for separate quarters off campus for those being quarantined. “The school has been great,” Bernardini said. “I’m impressed with the job Riv has been doing.”

Meanwhile, the Raiders’ coach is looking for his seniors, like co-captain Dillon Brady, to set the tone for the reset.

“We just take things one day at a time,” Bernardni said. “It could be the other school (dealing with protocols) or us.

“I want our captains to set the tone. We just took our break after our preseason, and how we have four days to get ready for Norwich.”

With fingers crossed as always.