Let’s play ball

SANFORD — It’s that time of the year again.

The Sanford Mainers take the field tonight to begin their ninth season of New England Collegiate Baseball League play.

The Mainers will head to the Granite State to take on the Laconia Muskrats (the former Manchester Silkworms), who will open their inaugural season at Robbie Mills Park at 7 p.m.

It’s a mix of veterans and rookies on the 2010 Sanford roster. Of the 28 players on the team, seven will return from the 2009 season, which saw the Mainers go 23-16, finishing second in the East Division, losing to eventual NECBL champion Newport in the East Division Championship.

Sanford pitcher Dustin Ramey (UMass-Lowell), one of the seven veterans returning, will take the mound against the Muskrats. He said the veterans on the team don’t hold any bad taste in their mouths over how last season finished.

“There’s no bad taste,” Ramey said. “Summer ball is supposed to be fun. But obviously I think we’re looking to do better than we did last year.”

Looking up and down the roster, one thing is for certain in 2010, and that is the Mainers will be able to hit. All but two of the Sanford position players had a .300 or better average in college this spring, and two hitters, Bobby Doyon (Keene State) and Mike McCann (Manhattan) could bring some pop, as both hit 10 home runs during the college season.

Doyon, who hails from a Division III school, said he looks forward to the challenge of testing his skills against Division I and Division II talents.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Doyon said. “I think I’ve been waiting for it for a while, just to see where I stand and see how I fare against them all.”

Sanford manager Aaron Izaryk, returning for his second season, said the team will also feature speed, something it lacked last season.

“The one thing we have a lot of is team speed,” Izaryk said. “We struggled last year. We had a couple of guys that didn’t run that well, if you hit a single, they couldn’t get it into second base. A lot of guys on this team are speed oriented, so if they bunt for a hit or get on by an error, they can steal second base and be one hit away, knowing that doubles and home runs are hard to come by, at home as well as throughout the league.”

No doubt all eyes will focus on the infield this season, as joining the club is Vanderbilt second baseman Anthony Gomez. The top player in one of the top programs in the nation, Gomez, who is finishing his freshman season, started the season on the bench but quickly took the second base job and led the team in hitting with a .388 batting average. Gomez also boasts a .967 fielding percentage.

“When we recruited the team last year, we struggled with the defense on the infield,” Izaryk said. “The one thing that I wanted was to pick up four college shortstops, and a guy that can play second base pretty well.”

The pitching will be the question mark for the Mainers, but only because of lack of experience. Ramey, who went 7-4 with a 2.07 E.R.A for UMass-Lowell this season, and Colin Snow (Georgia Southern), who was 3-0 with a 1.27 E.R.A. with Sanford last year, will be the veteran leaders in the rotation. However, another pitcher to watch will be starter Jim Schult (Eastern Connecticut), who was 5-1 with a 3.52 E.R.A this spring, with 53 strikeouts in 61 innings. Schult is no rookie to the NECBL, as he played for the North Shore Navigators last season.

Izaryk said a key will be to quickly figure out the roles of the staff.

“I think the pitching will be good,” Izaryk said. “You don’t know the roles are yet until the guys are here and you realize what you’ve got.”

The only trouble the Mainers face (as well as every team in the NECBL) for at least the first week is lack of the entire roster. Gomez, as well as a host of other Mainers, have yet to show up, as their college teams continue through the NCAA playoffs.

To ensure the team had a catcher, since veteran Doug Elliot (Connecticut) and rookie Pat Cantwell(Stony Brook) were still with their respective schools, the Mainers signed Keene State catcher Tyler DiPrato to start the season. As of Thursday, Sanford had 11 of its 28 players working out.

The Mainers open the gates of Goodall Park for its first home game of the season tomorrow. Game time is scheduled for 6:30 p.m.