Bangor pitcher Treadwell energized after surgery to fix racing heart

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Two weeks into the baseball season, Bangor junior Andy Treadwell was essentially on top of his game.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound pitcher-outfielder was starting to get into a rhythm on the mound and his batting stroke was as smooth as ever.

Then one day during pregame batting practice, Treadwell had to stop in the middle of taking some cuts in the batting cage and sit down as his heart inexplicably began to beat much faster than normal. He was short of breath and his breathing was labored.

“My heart just started pounding right out of my chest and I had to sit down and rest. It went away after about five minutes, but it was kind of scary,” Treadwell said.

Treadwell played in the game without incident, but the rapid heartbeat condition came back a couple more times, once against Brewer when he was on the mound and again at Hampden when he was pitching in the fourth inning.

Both times, Treadwell’s coaches yanked him from the game.

“You could visibly see it through his shirt,” said Rams varsity baseball coach Jeff Fahey. “It was just pounding away.”

His mother was concerned enough to take her son to the hospital, where he was evaluated, cleared to resume play, and given a heart rate monitor.

The next occurrence at Hampden caused his doctors to shut Treadwell down as his monitor recorded a rate of 260 beats per minute. His rate at Brewer was 150. His normal resting rate is 70.

“I guarantee it was probably anxiety or stress or something like that that caused it,” Treadwell said, adding the doctors have been unable to pin down the exact cause. “I was told I probably wouldn’t be back the rest of the season by a lot of people. Then the day before the procedure, I was told I’d be back Monday, but honestly I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get it done and feel better.”

Last week, he had a two-part, 31/2-hour procedure to diagnose and treat his condition, which was caused by a malfunctioning nerve misreading brain signals and causing his heart to beat too fast.

“I had an electro-physiology exam that took about 21/2 hours and then a catheter ablation where they go in and fix it using two catheters, one with a mini camera and the other with a laser to fix the nerve.” Treadwell explained.

From the moment he awoke after surgery, the 17-year-old son of Karen Cosenze and Michael Treadwell has felt revitalized.

“I had a lot more energy like the first day because what I had was causing me a lot of shortness of breath and I was tired all the time,” Treadwell said. “I used to drink coffee before, but I don’t even need it anymore ’cause I’m kind of hyper now. I also feel stronger.”

Treadwell’s batting average has gone from .580 to .417 (15-for-36), but he’s still among Bangor’s leaders in average, RBIs (12), and slugging percentage (.667). In his first at-bat since surgery, he delivered a pinch-hit, two-run single.

However, Treadwell’s pitching status still remains unclear.

“This really set him back that way. We thought he was going to be our No. 1 and after Josh [Young] threw his first game with Bapst, we had two number ones. Then Andy did well at Brewer, so we thought we were in good shape,” said Fahey about his righthanded starter.

Treadwell, who has seven strikeouts, 11 walks, seven hits and 12 earned runs in 7 1/3 innings this season, says he doesn’t care if he pitches again. He’s just happy to be playing again.

“I think the most frustrating thing about this was not being able to play because I had surgery last year after breaking my hand playing Legion ball,” Treadwell said. “Just being able to play again after that was such a big thing because I love this sport the most.”

No doubting Thomas’ toughness

After being helped off the field and taken to the hospital following an ill-fated dive to catch a ball during pregame drills 10 days ago, Orono baseball coaches feared the worst for Bo Thomas.

The Red Riots’ starting catcher was initially thought to have dislocated his left shoulder and possibly broken his collarbone.

Just two days after the injury, Orono’s starting catcher was back on the field swinging the bat. Last Tuesday, chances were better than 50-50 that he might see time at designated hitter as Orono hosted Caribou in a doubleheader.

“I don’t know if we’ll use him or not,” said head coach Aaron Watson. “We’ll continue to evaluate him day by day. He’ll need to have more strength and range of motion, but he feels OK right now.”

Thomas was better than OK as he homered in his first at-bat. In fact, both he and Ryan Levesque hit back-to-back home runs on consecutive days. Thomas had seven hits and drove in six runs in his first three games since his injury.

Watson said if Thomas continues to progress as quickly as he has, he could be back behind the plate “relatively soon.”

It’s a rare piece of good news for the 8-7 Red Riots.

“He’s intense, as his injury shows, and he’s a leader for us on the field,” Watson said. “We got lucky on that one, but we were due for some good luck.”

The Riots have been hit hard by player losses primarily due to suspensions. They went from an 18-man roster to 12 in the space of two weeks. Losing Thomas would have left just one player on the bench.

“We had a couple kids suspended and then three more a week later in the first two weeks of the season. They violated the co-curricular compliance form [athletic code],” Watson explained. “Then another kid had to quit because of academic conflicts.”

Watson said the losses restructured Orono’s entire lineup and savaged its depth chart.

“Two or three of those guys were starters,” he explained. “But the kids haven’t let this get them down. They’ve just taken it as another challenge and another rung on the ladder they’ve got to climb up.”

Andrew Neff can be reached at 990-8205, 1-800-310-8600 or aneff@bangordailynews.net.