WELLS — If there was still any dissapointment from the early-than-expected exit from the Western Maine Class B baseball playoffs from last year, it wasn’t showing at Warrior Memorial Field earlier this spring.
The players of the Wells baseball team had a spring in their step, moving around from station-to-station, full of energy.
Much of that had to do with the return of Chuck Chadbourne, who came back as the Warriors head coach after a two-year hiatus.
“This is a real special group, we had these guys when they were freshmen,” Chadbourne said. “Most of them played for us in the summer with (American Legion). It wasn’t an issue of them getting to know us and we getting to know them, there was already a nice level of comfortability. It was nice, it was easy.”
Chadbourne steps into a situation most baseball coaches put at the top of their Christmas wish list. Almost the entire roster returns from last year, a roster that includes 12 seniors out of 15 players.
No season goes without some form of adversity. The Warriors have their own in the form of shortstop Paul McDonough, who is still recovering from foot surgery following football season. The surgery required him to miss all of basketball season. McDonough may have to miss a couple of weeks early on in the season, but he’ll still be back on the field in six months, as opposed to the year he was originally told.
How McDonough responds when he does step on the field is unknown, but last year he was a key factor in the Warriors’ success, hitting .509 with three home runs and 14 RBIs.
Chadbourne said that while injuries have hit the Warriors, it won’t stop the team from going out and competing.
“With the loss of one key guy, or the limitation of one key guy, it has a trickle down effect, so now your center fielder is now your shortstop and you’re going from there,” Chadbourne said. “They’re a great group. They’ve competed at a very high level all year. We’re going to keep it fun, keep it loose and have a good time.”
With that said, there’s still plenty of reason to like Wells this season. Louis DiTomasso gave one example
“The bats,” DiTomasso said. “Hopefully, we’ll be able to put the ball in play this year, put up some runs.”
That may be an understatement. Even if McDonough is force to sit out, Wells still has power to spare. In DiTomasso, the Warriors’ catcher, they have a hitter who outslugged his colleagues in York County last year, smacking seven home runs. In Kevin Woods and Cole Boston, the Warriors have two hitters who batted above .350 last year. In first baseman Josh Ingalls, Wells has a lefty bat that can smack a fastball deep into the woods over the right field wall at Warrior Memorial Field, much like he did in a game last season.
The pitching staff is looking just as good, headed by Brandon Pridham, who went 4-1 with a 2.76 ERA last season.
“It’s pretty early, but it’s looking good right now,” McDonough said. “We’re about four (pitchers) deep, maybe five.”
It’s tough to immediately predict how far Wells can go this spring. But if it matches their potential, the sky is the limit.
— Contact Dave Dyer at 282-1535, Ext. 323.
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