Young Maine pitchers get a rude baptism

While the seasons are overlapping….

The University of Maine baseball team’s Magical Misery Tour of Louisiana continues to exemplify what pro baseball can do to a college team.

With Larry Thomas and Ben Burlingame passing up their senior years to sign pro contracts with the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Cubs, respectively, the Black Bears were left with only one veteran among last year’s top four starters. And that one veteran, Mike D’Andrea, is coming off arm surgery and is not the type of pitcher who goes out and overpowers people.

D’Andrea’s five-homer, 11-run outing over 2 1/3 innings of his 14-1 loss to Tulane on Wednesday indicates that he will have to become a finesse pitcher. He is a bulldog who will still need to challenge hitters, but he’d better hit his spots and mix speeds.

The bullpen is a mess as the three pitchers who combined for all 11 saves a year ago have all graduated.

Entering Maine’s Wednesday night game against New Orleans, the Bear staff had given up 57 runs over the last 33 innings.

What this coming season boils down to is this: Maine Coach John Winkin and his assistants are going to be put to the ultimate challenge.

They are going to have to find out which pitchers can do the job in certain situations and use them accordingly.

The fact the North Atlantic Conference has gone to all seven-inning games, 28 league games apiece to be exact, will be to Maine’s advantage.

Don’t be surprised if Winkin uses three or four pitchers in a game to get the job done.

Earlier this week, Winkin acknowledged that one of the keys to the season will be “how I handle the pitching.”

The staff isn’t as bad as it has been in Louisiana. The young pitchers are simply getting a rude baptism to college baseball courtesy of some very good teams with very good hitters.

Maine’s defense should be very good and the lineup should produce plenty of runs. Maine will never be out of a game.

But, with the inexperience on the pitching staff, neither will any of Maine’s opponents.

The teams they are playing now are considerably better than the NAC teams. So don’t panic yet.

But bring your blankets to Mahaney Diamond this spring. Plan to be there a while.

One of the quiet but important ingredients to Maine’s hockey success this season is the mental toughness of the players.

These players simply do not accept losing and they are able to shift into overdrive when they are threatened with a loss.

Mental toughness comes in a variety of shapes and forms. It can involve keeping your composure when the opponent has the momentum; avoiding a retaliatory penalty to retain a power-play advantage; making a crunching body check to snap your team out of a lethargic stretch; scoring the big goal or making the big save when your team needs it the most and never bmaking the big save when your team needs it the most and never being intimidated by an opposing team or crowd.

A lot of teams would have cracked under the pressure this team has been subjected to.

A few weeks ago at the University of New Hampshire’s Snively Arena, when UNH took a 3-1 lead over Maine in front of a frenzied crowd, it would have been easy for the Bears to pack it in. They had just clinched the Hockey East regular-season title the previous night.

But the Bears dug deep, scored three unanswered goals in a span of 3:52 and wound up gaining a 4-4 tie.

A member of the media in the UNH press box said, “Maine’s the only team that could come back and score three goals that quickly in this atmosphere.”

The playoffs are upon us and the Bears will again be put to the test.

Their mental toughness just may be the intangible that leads them to a national championship.