Busy summer may give Ballard a Maine edge

AUGUSTA – Mark Ballard has had a busy summer, to say the least.

He has not only played for New Auburn’s Zone 3 champion American Legion team, he has also played for the Auburn Asas of the Portland Twilight League.

Ballard will be one of the pitchers University of Maine Coach John Winkin will be looking at to fill the huge void next season. Maine lost three of its top four starters to graduation (Ed Therrien) and the pros (Larry Thomas and Ben Burlingame) and highly touted incoming freshman southpaw Mark O’Brien signed with the Texas Rangers.

The 6-foot-3, 235-pound Ballard appeared in four games as a freshman at Maine this past spring, going 2-1 with a 5.79 earned run average over 14 innings.

“By pitching for the Asas, I’ve had the chance to face better caliber hitters,” said Mechanic Falls’ Ballard. “But it’s been kind of tough because Twilight League games don’t mean that much. They don’t mean as much as Legion games. So I haven’t had as much intensity in those games as I should have.”

Ballard is 4-3 for the Asas and ran his record to 4-0 in Legion ball with a four-hit, 6-1 win over Brewer in their State American Legion Tournament opener at McGuire Field here on Thursday.

Ballard knows what is expected of him and is looking forward to the fall.

“If I show Coach Winkin that I’m working hard, he’ll give me my chance,” said Ballard. “I have to develop my changeup and make sure I hit my spots. Coach (Winkin) loves pitchers to hit their spots.”

New Auburn American Legion Coach and Auburn Asas general manager Bruce Lucas expects Ballard to have a productive season at Maine.

“He has worked real hard this summer,” said Lucas. “He’s played ball every day. He is really motivated and he already has the tools.”

Winkin said Ballard is very much in the picture.

“He’s one of the guys we’re going to look at,” said Winkin. “He’s got to be able to handle the tough hitters in the batting order. He’s got to compete and be aggressive. I hope his experience in the Twilight League will pay off.”

Ballard features a decent fastball, although it is straight, and two types of sliders. He has a hard slider and a slower one that has a good drop to it.

For the Legion team, Ballard has pitched 29 innings and given up 16 hits and only two earned runs. He has struck out 38 and walked 14. He has also had a very productive summer at the plate, hitting .558 with 11 homers and 49 runs batted in.

Brewer losing pitcher Al Perkins, who allowed 7 hits and just 2 earned runs in his eight-inning performance against New Auburn, impressed New Auburn Coach Bruce Lucas and his team. Perkins struck out four and walked three while throwing 119 pitches, 69 of which were strikes.

“I thought he did a good job,” said Lucas. “He kept us off balance.”

“He was able to get his curve over and we’re not used to seeing somebody who can get their curve over 90 percent of the time,” said New Auburn catcher Mike Fickett.

Brewer Coach Dave Gonyar said Perkins pitched “an excellent game.”

“I thought I pitched well,” said Perkins.

Brewer third baseman Billy Swift hit into hard luck on Thursday, lining out to deep left field in the first inning; having third baseman Adam Webster make a nice backhanded play on his fourth-inning grounder and hitting a scorching liner to shortstop Mike Hayward in the eighth.