Baseball pitchers and catchers have begun working out at high schools around the state this week.

At Deer Isle-Stonington, home of the defending Class D state champions, there’s some rust to be worked off, as well as a rite of winter to relegate to the memory banks.

“The kids are coming off a basketball hangover,” said Mariners coach Darren Eaton. “They haven’t quite got the baseball spikes out yet.”

Deer Isle-Stonington stunned three-time defending champion North Yarmouth Academy 3-2 in last year’s Class D state final at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish behind the three-hit pitching of then-freshman Collin Ciomei.

But this is a new year, and preseason drills remain basically the same whether the participants are established champions or merely hopefuls.

“There’s a lot of stuff to start getting down,” Eaton said. “Right now we’re working on arm strength and location, to make sure the kids are ready to pitch when the season starts.”

The Mariners are faced with some health issues even before the start of full-fledged practices next Monday.

Junior shortstop and pitcher Bryant Ciomei is slated to undergo right shoulder surgery in late April and will miss the entire season.

“Not having Bryant is a real big loss,” said Eaton. “The kids look up to him a lot, he’s like a field general out there. He’ll be there with us on the bench, but it will be real difficult to replace him on the field.”

Junior Jon Eaton, meanwhile, currently is suffering from mononucleosis, and his status for the start of the season is uncertain, coach Eaton said.

The Mariners will benefit from the return this spring of junior pitcher-first baseman Shane Eaton, who missed nearly all of last season after undergoing surgery on his left shoulder.

The cleanup hitter in the Deer Isle-Stonington lineup as a freshman, a healthy Shane Eaton will help compensate for the loss of Bryant Ciomei in the batting order, as well as contribute to an all-righthanded pitching rotation that also features Collin Ciomei and junior Raymond Garcia.

“Collin is a lot taller [6-foot-3] and a lot stronger than he was a year ago,” said coach Eaton, “and he’s a lot more fluid on the mound.”

This year’s roster has no seniors, and coach Eaton expects to have 20 to 22 players out when full practices begin, enough to continue the junior varsity program that was established last year.

That JV squad produced major dividends, among them enabling Ben Hardie to get his first experience behind the plate – he went on to be the starting catcher in the state final.

“Having the junior varsity team benefited us tremendously last year,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have enough kids to keep it going, because it gives the younger kids some more experience and gives us a better look at them.”

The Mariners, 11-3 during the 2005 regular season and the No. 3 seed in the Eastern D playoffs, will play a full, 16-game schedule this spring after adding two games against perennial power Lee Academy, including the season opener April 21.

Coach Eaton expects Lee and Katahdin of Stacyville to be among the top contenders in Eastern D this spring, but he’s also cautiously optimistic about his own club – particularly understandable given his players’ competitive successes over the last 12 months.

In addition to the state title in baseball, the Mariners’ boys basketball team recently reached the Eastern D semifinals after finishing the regular season as the top-seeded team in the division.

And the school’s chess team – which included Bryant and Collin Ciomei and Shane and Jon Eaton – tied for top honors with John Bapst of Bangor earlier this month at the annual State Scholastic Team Chess Championships held at the University of Maine.

“We’ve got a lot of question marks,” said coach Eaton, “but I like my team.”