Though the Vikings were hot down the stretch, an up-and-down season netted them nothing as Elizabeth City State missed out on the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association baseball tournament for the first time in coach Terrance Whittle’s 12 seasons at ECSU.

So, the goal of the 2012 Vikings is simple — get back to the CIAA tournament.

“We’re relatively excited about going into the season,” Whittle said. “It was kind of a disappointing down season for us to be right on the cusp of making our conference tournament. We finished strong, winning six of eight ball games right there in the end and fighting for that fourth-place playoff spot. It was a situation we did not want to be in, but we found ourselves in.”

Pitching was the downfall last season as ECSU finished with a team ERA of 7.25, utilizing a very thin staff.

“We really weren’t strong with our pitching staff,” Whittle said. “We had one senior and two freshmen that carried us through the majority of the year.”

As a result, Whittle focused on bolstering the pitching staff in the offseason. Leading the way though will be sophomore Kerich Randolph, a 6-foot-4, 190-pound lefty. Randolph struck out 74 in 70 1-3 innings, led the team with a 4.08 ERA and threw no-hitter against Shaw.

Sophomore Cameron Cecil and freshmen Thomas Clark and Lake Krehel, a Northeastern product, will join Randolph in the starting rotation. Michael Duck is a fifth starter, but is hurt right now. Whittle is hoping he will join the rotation sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Junior college transfer Ricardo Harvey will start the season as the Vikings’ closer, but also has the ability to start.

“We’re not really going to over power anybody, but I think we’ll be able to throw strikes and keep us in ball games,” Whittle said.

The Vikings’ offense did well last season, finishing second in the CIAA in batting at .299 and leading the league with 33 home runs.

Four players with starting experience return, including Justin Hooker (.285, 27 runs, 18 RBIs), Weston Dodson (.314, 29 runs, 38 RBIs), Johnny Pitt (.362, 14 runs, 15 RBIs) and Cliff Taylor (.375, eight runs, six RBIs).

Along with Krehel, the Vikings have several players with local ties that will be key contributors this season, including Dodson, a sophomore outfielder from Camden, who will hit fifth. Robert Jacot will get the starting nod at second base. The Perquimans grad spent two seasons at College of The Albemarle.

Hooker, a junior shortstop from Northeastern, moves up to the No. 2 slot in the order.

“Right now we’re a young team looking for leadership and a couple of people to step up,” Hooker said. “When it comes to the plate this year, we have a lineup with everybody that wants it. In this league, you don’t win a lot of game 2-1 or 3-2. It’s mostly 10-9 or 12-11 games. So it mostly comes down to who can hit the all seven innings.

“I’m ready to go. Since we lost to Virginia State last year (in the season finale), I’ve been ready to go.”

Freshman Dustin Spruill, of Perquimans, and transfer Dustin Thomas, a Currituck grad who went to Delaware Tech, will platoon at catcher with Spruill also playing some third base and designated hitter. Also in the mix at catcher, another position that Whittle felt he needed to address, is Pasquotank freshman Tyler Bridgers.

“We weren’t that strong behind the plate last year and this will give us a little more depth,” Whittle said. “We’re deeper at key positions that we weren’t last year and that’s a plus for us.”

Whittle points to St. Augustine’s, Chowan and Winston-Salem State, last year’s tournament champions, among the teams to beat in the CIAA. For the Vikings to do that, Whittle says his team will have to find a way to avoid extended losing streaks. Last year’s 19-23 record featured three winning streaks of three games or more as well as three separate losing streaks of at least three games.

“Hopefully, we won’t have those highs and lows and we can get up and stay there,” Whittle said. “Our league is competitive this year, as it’s always been, but we have some really good teams. We’re going to have to put together a series of wins, stay consistent, be strong over the long haul. I think we were able to put together a good pitching staff and a good core groups of guys that can give us a chance to win every night.”