Kelly held in high esteem by former coaches

Leadership, commitment, dedication, concern for fellow teammates — those were among the several dozen categories Mark Jackson used to annually evaluate his baseball players at Point Park.

It was a straightforward method for assessing the character of his team.

In 1999, Jackson returned a veteran squad of players from a Pioneers club that had just competed in the NAIA College World Series.

Yet ahead of the ’99 campaign, despite having no shortage of leaders and veterans, Jackson was floored upon...