The high school baseball season is ramping up this week in the North region of the state. And from Class A to Class D, northern coaches are expecting close leagues defined by strong pitching.
Several area coaches spoke with the Bangor Daily News last week as their teams have been making the transition from preseason to regular season action. Here are some storylines and players to keep an eye on as that season gets underway.
Can’t overlook any teams
The Hampden Academy Broncos are coming off a 15-1 regular season last year and were the top ranked team heading into the playoffs. But the team won’t be taking any game for granted this season, according to head coach Jon Perry.
He expects Class A North to be “pretty well balanced” without any teams that are “head and shoulders over everybody,” including his own squad.
“You’ve got to play well every game in this league,” Perry added.
“You better not overlook anybody because they’re all good programs and well coached,” Bangor coach David Morris said about the competition in the region.
Caribou coach Josh Dillon and his Vikings proved that last year in Class B, turning a sixth place finish in the regular season into a North regional championship during the playoffs.
“Baseball is a game of inches, and the inches were in our favor towards the end of the year,” Dillon said. “So hopefully they’ll continue that way this year for us.”
The past few years, according to Dillon, Penobscot Valley Conference action has been “really, really good baseball from top to bottom, so it’s going to be interesting to see what happens depending on the matchup.”
Schenck High School of East Millinocket coach John Montgomery expects neighboring Stearns of Millinocket to still be “the team to beat” in Class D following up last year’s North regional championship.
He also sees growth in the East Millinocket program that went 7-7 last season.
“You know, traditionally here in East Millinocket it’s a basketball town and that’s what kids love,” Montgomery said. “But we’re slowly building it up where we are competing every year and we’re right there.”
Pitching will be key
“I think the North is gonna be really pitching heavy,” Old Town coach Justin Crisafulli. It was a popular sentiment among other coaches as well.
“We’ll go as far as our pitching goes,” said Lee Academy coach Randy Harris.
Montgomery in East Millinocket said pitching, especially controlled pitching that doesn’t put batters on base by walking them, will be key in Class D.
“You have to throw strikes, and you can’t give free bases away,” the Schenck coach said.
Morris and the Bangor Rams fell to Messolonski in the Class A North final last year, and Morris thinks the Eagles will once again be “a team to be reckoned with” this season after returning some key pitchers.
“I think overall there’s going to be a lot of parity. I think obviously with baseball, it comes down to what kind of pitching do you have, and how you start and how you finish,” Morris said.
Players to watch
With pitching expected to set the tone across North regional action this season, it should come as little surprise that many of the players to keep an eye on will be working on the mound at some point. Area coaches had plenty of input on some of the pitchers to watch out for this season, both on their own teams and on the mound against them.
Dillion, the Caribou coach, highlighted the “three-headed pitching monster” in Ellsworth made up of Brayden King, Dawson Curtis and Jackson Barry.
“It’ll be a tough team to beat,” Dillon said about the Class B Eagles. “They all throw high in the mid 80s.”
Several coaches also highlighted the abilities of Bangor Christian pitcher Cole Payne, who Montgomery expects to be “one of the best pitchers in the league” in Class D this season.
Old Town’s pitching staff will once again feature a couple of young arms in sophomores Tyler Priest and Julian Duty.
Crisafulli, Old Town’s coach, said both sophomores threw in the mid 80s and are heading into the season with a year of varsity experience under their belt.
“So I think this year they’re going in it with a really good mindset of really dominating, you know, pitching wise,” Crisafulli said about Priest and Duty.
Other strong pitching combos to follow this season include Hampden’s Kaysen Wildman and Bodie Bishop; Stearns’ junior Owen Wilson and sophomore Emerson Michaud; Lee’s senior tandem of Finn Knowles and Andrew Glidden; and a full pitching staff for Bangor that is returning from last year.
“Wilson can be dominant, too, and what I see with him is — all these guys that are dominant limit their walks,” Schenck coach Montgomery said about the Stearns pitcher. “You know, one, maybe two a game — and that’s how you’re gonna succeed is by throwing strikes.”
Stearns coach Don Boyington said that Wilson has “a nice curve and a slider — and actually a knuckleball that works really well.”
Boyington also said that Knowles at Lee Academy is “going to be a very good pitcher” this season.
Harris said his team is lucky to basically have two aces in Knowles and Glidden, both all-conference players in PVC Class D last year. And both are solid two-way players who help the team at the plate as well, Harris said.
And with all the emphasis on pitching, don’t forget about the catchers either. Dillon stressed how Caribou senior catcher Matt Pelletier, a second-team all-conference player a season, “really contained the running game for us last year.” Efforts by Pelletier and others behind the plate will be crucial for teams across the region.
Bangor coach Morris similarly highlighted Brewer catcher Kaiden Morin as a “really good player,” and Hampden’s Perry said the Broncos’ junior catcher Rogan Lord has been developing behind the plate.
In the batter’s box, reigning PVC Class B player of the year Colin Sullivan from MDI is “a tough match for any pitcher,” according to Caribou’s Dillon. Old Town coach Crisafulli added that Maddox Kinney from Hermon “can really swing it.”
