BREWER, Maine — First he ranged into the shortstop hole to flag down a grounder seemingly destined for left field, only to frustrate the batter even further with a strong, accurate throw to first base for the out.
Then there was his dive with reckless abandon for a grounder up the middle that ultimately did make its way into center field for a hit.
Two other slow rollers required a hard charge forward to grab the ball and throw it in virtually the same motion to cut down runners seeking to boost their batting averages with infield hits.
Yes, Logan Rogerson is back.
A mainstay of the infield for the Brewer High School baseball team since his freshman year, Logan this week looked all the part of a senior shortstop fully recovered from a dislocated right hip suffered while playing quarterback for the Witches in last November’s Class B North football championship game.
More importantly for Rogerson, a first-team All-Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A baseball choice last spring, he feels that way, too.
“At first I was a little hesitant taking ground balls in the hole or up the middle. I was a little hesitant with that hip,” said Rogerson after totaling five assists and three putouts worth of errorless defense during Monday’s 7-3 loss to Bangor at Heddericg Field.
“But once I got into it, I felt pretty good. Physical therapy helped a lot, doing leg presses and things like that, and now I feel 100 percent.”
Rogerson was injured late in the first quarter of his team’s regional football final at Brunswick as he attempted to scramble away from defenders on a fourth-down play.
Medical personnel from both schools quickly attended to Rogerson, and in less than a minute they were able to put his hip back into place.
No surgery was required, but Rogerson was on crutches for much of the winter before beginning physical therapy. He watched from the bench as the Brewer boys basketball team finished second in the final Class A North Heal point ratings and advanced to the regional semifinals at the Augusta Civic Center.
“It was smart keeping him out of basketball,” said Brewer baseball coach Dana Corey. “He’s a competitor and it was a tough thing for him to do to not play, and I’m sure he wanted to. But I think it helped him, and he’s certainly 100 percent now.”
Rogerson nearly was cleared to return to the Witches in time for the tournament.
“I was pretty close,” he said. “It came down to one doctor’s appointment before the first playoff game, but I didn’t get to go.”
As Rogerson continued his recuperation, he also helped coach Brewer’s first-year unified basketball team. From that experience, and watching his own basketball team’s games from a different perspective, he may have gained a different appreciation for competition that Corey said is revealing itself within this year’s baseball team.
“I think it helped him grow maturity-wise as far as he was helping coach kids up on the bench and at practice, and he did a great job with the unified team, too,” Corey said. “And sometimes as you get to watch players who show a little flamboyancy when calls are made, all of a sudden you’re saying, ‘That guy looks silly, almost ridiculous,’ and then you learn that maybe that’s how you looked.
“Things happen for a reason, and you don’t want to see that happen to any kid, but sometimes you get a chance to grow when you don’t think you’re going to.”
Rogerson, who plans to continue his athletic career at Husson University in Bangor next fall, returned to the Brewer baseball program in late March and has assumed a leadership role both on the field and in the dugout.
“I think he’s more verbal than he was before,” said Corey, whose team sought its first victory at undefeated Messalonskee of Oakland on Wednesday. “Before he would lead by example but he’s taken a little more ownership as far as being verbal, and the thing is he has the credentials to back up what he’s saying and asking the kids to do.”
And then there’s that defense.
“He makes so many things look easy,” said Corey. “He makes the routine plays and the hard plays, and that can also lift a team when you’ve got somebody doing that.”
The Fleming factor
Another player whose return to the diamond may influence the Class A North baseball race is Andrew Fleming of Oxford Hills in South Paris.
The 6-foot-6 senior, better known as a basketball standout who this past winter was named Bangor Daily News All-Maine first-team, the Gatorade Maine player of the year and a finalist for the state’s Mr. Basketball award, has added to the Vikings’ bullpen depth with pitching appearances in two of their first three games this spring.
Playing baseball for the first time since his freshman year after spending the last two springs concentrating on basketball, Fleming allowed one hit and no earned runs over two innings in Oxford Hills’ season-opening 8-1 loss at Bangor, then closed out the Vikings’ 7-0 win over Lewiston on Monday.
“He’s had a good spring,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said of Fleming, who will play basketball on scholarship at the University of Maine next winter. “He’s not afraid, he comes right at you and he changes his speeds well. He throws strikes and I don’t know if he’s given up an earned run yet this spring.
“It’s good to have him around, and he’s in great physical condition so he can throw and bounce back and play a good role out of the bullpen.”
Oxford Hills was 2-1 heading into Wednesday’s home game against 1-2 Brunswick.
