Turner traverses state, searching for at-bats

If a summer baseball game is going on somewhere in Maine, the chances are pretty good that Rex Turner is involved.

The young man from Augusta is the leading hitter in the Eastern Maine Amateur Baseball League. He has 21 hits in 42 at-bats for a .500 average for the league-leading Mid-Maine Marlins. He also leads the league in homers with four and runs batted in with 15.

He is also playing for the Coastal Athletics in the Portland Twilight League where, he said, “I’m doing all right but I’m not hitting for as high an average.”

Turner, 19, said he is playing “between four or five games a week” with the two teams.

Turner was the starting left fielder as a freshman at the University of Maine last spring, hitting .274 with five homers, nine doubles and 23 RBI.

His reason for playing in both leagues at different ends of the state is simple.

“I felt like if I played in one league and not the other, I wouldn’t get enough at-bats,” said Turner. “I would have had a little too much time off. I need to get as much work in as I can.”

He figures he has racked up at least 100 at-bats by now.

There have been a few conflicts but, so far, he has missed a total of only three games.

Turner said he has benefited from the extra at-bats as he tries to prepare for a better year at Maine next spring.

“I’ve been trying to hit the ball to all fields this summer,” said Turner. “For some reason, I became a pull hitter at Maine. I was hitting the ball too far in front of me. I was getting myself out. I was missing pitches I should have been hitting.”

He said he had never been a pull hitter and he has really worked on his mental approach to hitting.

“I’ve tried to relax and wait on the ball longer,” said Turner. “I’ve been trying to keep my front shoulder on the ball.”

He has succeeded, according to EMABL President John Kolasinski, the Husson College baseball coach.

“He has been more patient with the outside pitch,” said Kolasinski, who added that Turner has excellent bat velocity.

“One nice thing is even though some of the pitchers don’t have as strong a breaking ball as the ones I faced in college, I’ve been seeing a lot of off-speed pitches and I’ve been handling them pretty well,” said Turner.

He enjoys playing in both leagues. The EMABL has younger players and a better facility in Mahaney Diamond in Orono, he said, but he has learned a lot from the older players in the Twilight League.

Turner said having supportive parents in Richard and Winnie Turner and the support of his girlfriend, Erika Pruett, has made his travel schedule much easier. They often travel together.

Turner, a former Cony High School standout in Augusta, doesn’t have a steady job. That allows him the flexibility to play in both leagues. He does work out regularly to prepare for school.

Penquis forfeited a Zone 1 American Legion doubleheader to Trenton because the Travelers had only eight players, according to coach Bud Leavitt Jr.

Penquis has 15 players on its roster but two have not shown up for a game; two had Sunday work commitments; two were at basketball camp; and one had to take a college entry exam at the University of Maine-Presque Isle, Leavitt explained.

The games were rained out on Saturday and switched to Sunday.