BANGOR, Maine — The brilliance of a sun-filled, nearly cloudless sky couldn’t diminish other realities of the first Monday of spring — an air temperature near 20 degrees and wind-packed snow covering lawns, gardens and athletic fields.
But while it was still winter in a meteorological sense, Bangor High School’s boys of summer couldn’t wait to get going again.
“It’s just great being back throwing the baseball with all the guys,” said Rams’ senior pitcher-infielder Andrew Hillier. “We know the snow will melt.”
Practice for high school pitchers and catchers began statewide Monday, with full team practices for all spring sports set to begin next Monday in preparation for the start of regular-season competition in baseball, softball, outdoor track, tennis and lacrosse beginning April 16.
Bangor’s baseball program returns from a historic 2014 season at several levels.
The high school team lost its first game of the regular season, then went on to cap off an 18-2 season with an 8-0 victory over Windham to secure its first Class A state championship since 2006.
Many of those players went on to star during the Bangor American Legion team’s surge to its first state title since 1979, followed by a 2-2 effort at the Northeast Regional tournament that gave the Comrades a 25-7 record for the summer.
And that combined 43-9 record doesn’t even include Bangor’s Senior League all-stars reaching the semifinals of the Senior League World Series, as well as the city’s first-year Junior Legion team winning its state championship.
“I think it gives us something to build on,” said Bangor senior catcher-infielder Sam Huston. “It’s just going to give us extra motivation, because we know what it feels like and we want to win it again.
“But we know teams are going to come at us even harder because we won it last year.”
Veteran Bangor High School head coach Jeff Fahey is aware of the high expectations facing a program that must replace graduated pitching ace Justin Courtney and catcher Hunter Boyce — both now playing collegiately, Courtney at the University of Maine and Boyce at Endicott College.
Managing those expectations within a roster steeped in big-game experience begins with making sure his players make the most of a preseason that largely will be spent inside Red Barry Gymnasium.
“We had a coaches’ meeting at the end of January, and I said then my biggest concern was keeping the kids focused,” said Fahey. “They had such a great summer last year, whether it was JV baseball or high school or Junior Legion or Legion. They won a lot of baseball games, and now our biggest challenge is to keep them grounded and keep them focused.
“We just told them that the only ones who care that we won last year are us. Everyone else has already forgotten it and moved on, and they’re going to be coming at us.”
Bangor’s title defense will hinge in large part on returning members of a pitching staff that recorded shutouts in five of its last seven games last spring.
That staff will be anchored by returning starters Trevor DeLaite, a junior lefthander who went on to star for Bangor’s American Legion team at the Northeast Regional, and Hillier, a crafty righthander. But veteran reliever James Prescott and younger hurlers such as Nick Cowperthwaite and Peter Kemble are among others poised to make significant contributions.
“This may be one of the deeper staffs we’ve had,” said Fahey, “and we left a couple of kids off that could have been here because of the [Maine Principals’ Association] rule where you can only have eight pitchers this week.”
Huston, who started at third base last spring, and 2014 JV catcher Derek Fournier are top candidates to replace Boyce behind the plate.
“I think the guys want another one,” said Fahey, whose team’s first scheduled preseason game is April 11 at South Portland. “They are very competitive, and when we say to them we need to work hard every day, I don’t doubt for a second that they’re going to give it their all every single day.”
