The Orono High School baseball team has had a knack for playing its best when it means the most.
The Red Riots went a modest 25-23 during regular-season games from 2017 through 2019, but were 8-2 in postseason play during that same three-year period. They captured the Class C state championship in 2017 and won North regional crowns in 2017 and 2019.
That 2019 title — during a season that ended with a 4-1 loss to Lisbon in the state final — leaves coach Don Joseph’s club as a defending regional champion. It also motivated this spring’s senior-led squad, which seeks another state crown after not getting that chance in 2020 due to COVID-19.
“Most of us on the team this year are seniors,” Orono senior catcher Jason DeSisto said, “and with last year taken away we really want to take advantage of this year. We have our eyes on that prize.”
The Red Riots are 8-0 this spring and lead the Class C North Heal Points entering Tuesday’s rematch against neighboring rival and Class B North top seed Old Town.
Pitching has been pivotal to that success. Orono has allowed only 10 runs through the first half of its 16-game regular-season schedule, with three shutouts and three other games when the staff yielded just one run.
Senior lefty Cam Shorette and classmate Zack Dill, a right-hander, anchor a staff that also features senior Zach Needham and junior Caleb Ryder.
“We’ve got four pretty solid pitchers, we really do,” Joseph said.
A 6-3 victory at Old Town on May 13 also showed evidence of the Red Riots’ ability to come up with big plays during a big game. DeSisto’s steal of home plate in the top of the fourth inning produced the go-ahead run.
“We’re a team that is going to hustle on every play and take advantage of every opportunity because when you’re playing a great team you can’t screw up an opportunity,” DeSisto said. “Especially in high school baseball, every opportunity counts. Coach talks about that all the time.”
Orono’s ability to make winning plays in important games isn’t anything new. Six of the Red Riots’ eight playoff victories since the start of their state-championship 2017 season have come by one run, including all three wins during the 2019 Class C North playoffs.
“We’ve got five or six seniors that start, and it’s good leadership in the dugout and during practice,” Joseph said. “They do what you ask them, and they’re very coachable. They lead by example, and in this day and age that goes a long way.”
Joseph also senses the competitive urgency his most veteran players bring to the diamond each day, given that what they believed would be two more chances to capture state-championship gold was reduced to a single opportunity this spring due to the pandemic.
“They didn’t get a chance to play last year, and when you’re playing with seniors, there’s a sense of quiet desperation,” he said. “They want to be focused. They want to be committed.”
Orono’s home game against 8-2 Old Town will mark the first of eight contests scheduled during a 16-day stretch between Tuesday and the end of the regular season on June 2.
“We may lose a game here and there because we’re so busy,” Joseph said. “You can only pitch so many pitchers, but everybody’s in the same boat.”
Then come the playoffs, where Orono has experienced considerable success in recent years and is determined to achieve even more.
“Sophomore year all of us sophomores were a big part of that run to states,” Dill said. “We fell a little short so we were really looking forward to getting back to it junior year. Then COVID happened, so now we’re all eager to really make a run for it.”
