ZooKeepers end 2025 Season just short of playoffs

ASHEBORO —During the long Coastal Plain League summer season, which takes place after a grueling college campaign, there are bound to be players who leave the CPL team early for various reasons.

Injuries, changing schools, fatigue and a limited number of innings the college coach will allow his player to compete in all play factors on how well a team will do.

When the Asheboro ZooKeepers started the 2025 season, everything was going right. The players were producing, the chemistry needed to be successful came quickly and a number of different players were having banner seasons.

An 8-2 start to the season was later followed by a three-game win streak with victories over Lexington County, Florence and Forest City to give the team a 17-10 record.

But the consistent performances that were evident up to that point suddenly disappeared and the ZooKeepers went 7-14 over its next 21 games to fall out of playoff contention.

Two one-run losses — a 7-6 loss to Holly Springs on July 31 and a 3-2 setback to Forest City on August 1 — eliminated the ZooKeepers from the CPL postseason on the next-to-last day of the regular season. 

“I don’t think there was one main issue,” head coach and general manager Kory Dunbar said. “It seemed like there were many games where we did a good job in one area and one area lacked. We couldn’t piece it together in the second half and hit our stride. It’s a good learning lesson for them. Learn and grow from it.”

The ZooKeepers, who had 28 on the active roster at the end of the season, lost 19 players during the course of the summer campaign. But Dunbar won’t use that for an excuse.

“I’m not going to put the blame on that,” he said. “That is part of summer ball and the culture with summer ball. We got to continue to keep that in mind building a roster. We did have quite a few injuries, but we didn’t play good baseball for three solid months.”

A 3-8 stretch from July 5 through July 20, with a break inside for the All-Star Game, put the ZooKeepers at 20-18 before finishing 4-6 down the stretch.

“I will give these guys a ton of credit,” Dunbar said. “They played their hearts out. They showed up every day willing to work and get better and I think they did. That is what this is all about. I’m honored to have had a lot of these guys. I am excited to continue to watch them grow into ball players.”

Six ZooKeepers made the All-Star team, the most since 2016.

High Point’s Seojun Oh, USC AIken’s Yariel Diaz, Joe Rauscher and Sal Laimo, Tennessee Wesleyan’s Kruise Newman and Presbyterian’s Mason McDaniel were all honored.

“I think you have to have a core group,” Dunbar said of having a successful season and withstanding all the roster changes. “It can be challenging to reset, but if you have a core group of guys who can welcome them in, that’s the key.”

The ZooKeepers, who were looking to qualify for the postseason for the first time since earning playoff berths in 2015 and 2016, have just missed reaching that goal the past few seasons. Asheboro was 27-20 in 2024.

“The result isn’t what we wanted at the end of the day, but sometimes success doesn’t always have a straight line,” Dunbar said, giving praise to his coaching staff as well. “There are going to be peaks and valleys. We will move forward and continue to monitor things and keep these things in mind.”