LISBON — As the Lisbon baseball team begins the 2022 season, the seniors can’t rid their minds of the Greyhounds’ Class C South final loss to Monmouth last spring.
The way their junior year ended was so unsettling that the night of the regional final they went to Lisbon High School at 8 p.m. and worked out in the weight room.
“I’ve been thinking about it since it happened,” senior pitcher Nick Ferrence said Monday, the first day of baseball and softball practices for pitchers and catchers. “It’s not even that we lost, it’s how we lost. We had two hits and we didn’t score any runs and didn’t do anything good to win.”
Ferrence, fellow seniors Mason Booker and Hunter Brissette and junior Levi Tibbetts highlight a pitching staff that Lisbon coach Randy Ridley said is, “the deepest I’ve had here.”
“We have four solid players that can start,” Ridley, who is in his 22nd year leading the Greyhounds, said. “Everyone talks about having a number one; I don’t have a number one, but I have four guys that I can throw on a mound and compete solidly against any team in our conference: Mason Booker, Nick Ferrence, Levi Tibbetts and Hunter Brissette. I know I’ve got other kids that I can get two or three innings out of as the season goes along. Our pitching staff is pretty solid.”
Ridley said moments after last year’s playoff exit that Lisbon had three aces in Booker, Ferrence and Brissette. Tibbetts is trying to add his name to the list while continuing to contribute at the plate.
“Levi only pitched a couple games for me last year because he was out for a while due to COVID restrictions, but he looked really solid on the mound, and he’s just so long and lengthy and I know he’s going to throw well,” Ridley said.
“I think since last year, I’m sure everyone knows, but Levi last year hit, like, .400 and he grew, he’s grown more and gotten stronger, too,” Ferrence added. “We’ve been in the gym working, not with the coaches, just with us, (and) seeing the changes he’s made are huge. He throws 5 miles an hour faster and hits the ball really hard.”
Ferrence also has made improvements since last spring.
“I’ve gained a couple miles per hour and I’ve gotten better at my mechanics,” Ferrence said. “I’ve always thrown strikes because I know if they put it in play my boys will take care of it. It’s about mechanics and holding runners on.”
Ridley said Ferrence has the best curveball of the four starters, while Brissette and Booker have similar pitch arsenals.
“Mason and Hunter, they’re equal in a lot of ways,” Ridley said. “They’re both very solid, but Mason has a better changeup. They throw about the same velocity, same four-seam, two-seam, both have a curve, a slider.”
Caleb Phillips, the starting catcher, is another senior ready to get past the regional final and into the state title game for the first time since the Greyhounds won the Class C championship in 2019.
‘NOTHING LESS’
Despite the difficult ending, Ridley was satisfied with Lisbon’s 2021 season, especially since the 2020 season was wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic and made it difficult to predict how the year off would affect the players.
“I was very pleased with how far we went, and I think that we could’ve gone farther but we went up against a really good Monmouth pitcher and team, and that’s how it goes,” Ridley said.
Senior first baseman Ethan Brown said that when the players were lifting weights the night of last years regional final, they vowed to not let a playoff loss happen again. The chemistry between the group hopes to be a plus for the Greyhounds.
“It’s a lot of veteran experience to help out the young guys that are pretty strong, too,” Brown said. “I love being out here with the guys. It’s basically been the same team since our 12-year-old team that played in the New England Regional tournament. For us it’s always been the goal to get to and win that final state game.”
“Nothing less,” Ferrence added.
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