The St. Dom’s baseball team is a young team, with most players being freshmen and sophomores. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
AUBURN — The St. Dominic Academy baseball team may be young, but don’t call the Saints inexperienced.
“We are more experienced than last year. We actually seem to know what we are doing now,” sophomore Timothee Ouellette said. “We aren’t showing up like we are those little kids anymore against these bigger kids (from opposing teams).”
Fifteen of the 16 players on this year’s roster are either sophomores or freshmen. The eight sophomores were a part of last year’s 10th-seeded team that entered the playoffs 0-14 and won two playoff games before falling in the Class D South semifinals to second-seeded and eventual state champion Searsport.
This season’s Saints (8-8) are the third seed in D South and have earned a rematch with the top-ranked Vikings (13-4) in Tuesday’s Class D South regional final, at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham at 6:30 p.m.
“We didn’t lose anybody, and, if anything, we gained freshmen in our lineup; that helps our team,” Miles Frenette, the lone junior on the team, said Monday at practice. “We shouldn’t be overwhelmed when we play Searsport tomorrow. We know what they are like, and they have lost some guys — we haven’t.”
Frenette added that the Saints have made major strides since the end of the 2021 season.
“Last year, we were really immature, and last year we were hard to control because we were all freshmen and one sophomore,” Frenette said. “This year, we matured a lot. It really helps our game.”
Ouellette said that last year’s two playoff wins set the tone for the 2022 season.
“It showed us that we aren’t actually that bad,” Ouellette said. “Going 0-14 in the regular season and getting those two wins in playoffs, it showed us that we can do something, being all underclassmen. We brought it to this year with two wins in our scrimmages, and we continued it into (the regular season).”
It helps, sophomore pitcher Ashton Hammond said, that the players all know each other well.
“It’s a small school, so we are all friends, we all see each other in the hallways. It’s big for us to stay together and be so close because we are all best friends,” Hammond said. “It’s nice to see each other all get better every day.”
‘LITTLE MORE SWAGGER’
Coach Bob Blackman said he noticed a difference in the returning players at the beginning of the season.
“You could tell Day 1 there was a little more confidence, a little more swagger to them,” Blackman said. “And the record right now is 8-8, and some people may say that may be average. But if you really look at it, only one game we weren’t in (a 10-0 loss to Maranacook). We got beat pretty good in the Maranacook game, but every other game, even the losses — one run, two runs, two extra-inning games. So every game, we were in it.”
The Saints are riding a season-high three-game win streak, defeating Old Orchard Beach in the regular-season finale and then beating Vinalhaven and Richmond in their first two playoff games.
Blackman said St. Dom’s experience paid off in the win over Richmond.
“We were down 2-0 going into the sixth inning, and there was no panic,” Blackman said. “You really couldn’t see any panic on these guys, and they knew they still had a shot, and they rallied. We beat them 5-2. That was the telling sign that this team is that much more mature.”
Ouellette leads St. Dom’s on the mound and at the plate. He has a 3-1 record with a 2.89 ERA and has struck out 37 batters. With the bat, Ouellette has a team-leading .389 batting average, with three doubles and 15 RBIs.
Hammond is 2-1 on the mound, with a 2.39 ERA. He also has 39 strikeouts, which leads the team.
Three other sophomores all have a batting average over .300: Tanner Berry-Hart (.358), Thomas Casserly (.352) and Ethan Pelletier (.315). Berry-Hart and Casserly each have 10 RBIs.
The team also has a couple of players batting in the .270-.275 range.
Curtis Wheeler, left, Ashton Hammond, Miles Frenette and Timothee Ouellette have all had a strong playing season on the St. Dom’s baseball team. Andree Kehn/Sun Journal
Last year, only Ouellette that batted over .300. The next closest player was batting near .250.
Adding seven freshmen this season has created competition amongst the group. Last year’s squad only had 11 players total.
“Competition is good internally. That’s what we didn’t have last year, when you only have 11 kids,” Blackman said. “Who are they competing against, right? ‘The coach can’t bench me, we only got 11 guys.’
“They were pretty comfortable in their environment. This year, 16 kids, here’s a freshman that’s going to be in the starting lineup. ‘Guess what? Maybe we need to work a little bit.'”
Freshman Curtis Wheeler said competition among the players has been beneficial to him.
“Coach Blackman has really helped me, and this group of guys really push me to be my best,” Wheeler said.
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