Quality backups at shortstop aid Bangor, Old Town baseball

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One of a high school baseball coach’s tougher decisions can involve how to juggle a pitching staff, particularly when one of the pitchers is also the starting shortstop.

In many cases, to use the shortstop as a starting pitcher is to sacrifice elsewhere, unless the backup shortstop is able to handle the defensive load.

And it’s not an uncommon situation for a high school coach to face. Take this year alone, with the likes of Ian Edwards of Bangor and Jarrett Lukas of Old Town ranking as two of the top pitcher-shortstops in Eastern Maine Class A.

Edwards, a junior righthander, is 4-0 on the mound and is coming off three consecutive shutouts while helping lead defending state champion Bangor to a 12-0 record and the No. 1 spot in the latest Heal Point ratings.

Lukas, a senior righthander headed for the University of Maine in the fall, is 3-1 with an 0.91 earned run average in leading Old Town to a 9-3 record.

But in varsity newcomers John Cox of Bangor and Evan Paradis of Old Town, the shortstop position has been well tended when Edwards or Lukas has been on the mound.

Cox, a junior, has made just two errors filling in at shortstop for Edwards.

“At the beginning of the season, I would have thought that with Ian at short that’s our best defense,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey, “but John is playing very well right now. He’s making all the routine plays, and he got one in the hole [against Skowhegan in a 2-0 Bangor win Thursday] and had a good strong throw.”

Old Town has had similar success with Paradis at shortstop. Normally a second baseman, the junior has made just one error when he shifts to the left side of the infield on the days Lukas pitches.

“Evan was the JV shortstop for two years, and we thought he’d play shortstop on the varsity this year, but when we moved Jarrett there last year he just played so well,” said Old Town coach Dave Utterback. “Evan’s played great for us; he could start for a lot of other teams at shortstop.”

Edwards is comfortable with the defensive alignment behind him when he pitches, which includes Cox, junior third baseman Shane Walton, sophomore second baseman Chad Kelley, and junior first baseman Tyler McDade. All but Walton are first-year starters, but Bangor has yet to allow an unearned run with Edwards on the mound.

“It just encourages you to throw strikes and just concentrate on the hitters,” Edwards said. “You know that all you have to do is either force popups or force ground balls and they’ll make the plays, so it gives you a lot of confidence on the mound.”

Old Town and Bangor are scheduled to meet for the second time this season Monday night at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.

Lukas finalist for Gatorade award

Lukas is one of the finalists for the state’s 2007 Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year Award, according to the Coyotes’ Utterback.

Utterback was notified that Lukas and senior lefthander Josh Jillson of Oak Hill of Sabattus are finalists for the annual award, which will be announced Wednesday.

In addition to being 3-1 with a 0.91 ERA on the mound for Old Town, Lukas is batting .481 with four home runs, 15 RBIs, and 16 runs scored for the Coyotes through their 9-3 win over Nokomis of Newport on Thursday night. Lukas also has a .632 on-base percentage and a 1.037 slugging percentage.

Jillson pitched Oak Hill to the Class B state championship as a junior and has helped the Raiders shake off a slow start this spring to rank among the top eight teams in Western B.

Jillson already has a no-hitter to his credit this season in an 8-0 win over Maine Central Institute of Pittsfield on May 2. The University of Maine-bound Jillson struck out 13 and walked two in that game.

Basketball rules changes set

High school basketball coaches will lose a timeout of sorts next season under one of several rules revisions approved by the National Federation of State High School Associations’ Basketball Rules Committee and the NFHS Board of Directors.

The rules committee reduced the replacement interval for a disqualified player from 30 seconds to 20 seconds, and a warning signal will be sounded with 15 seconds remaining, or five seconds into the interval.

“Previously, with 30 seconds, many coaches were trying to use this time period as an unofficial timeout,” said Mary Struckhoff, NFHS assistant director and liaison to the basketball rules committee, in a press release. “By reducing the replacement interval, it encourages coaches to replace the disqualified player in a more timely fashion and allows the game to progress.”

Among other changes, the determination of when a dribble ends was revised, and now will end when the loss of control by the dribbler is caused by the opponent touching, or being touched by, the ball rather than an intentional batting of the ball.

“In the past, a common interpretation has been that any touching of a dribble by a defender ended the dribble,” Struckhoff said. “However, the language in our rules implied that the touching had to be by the hand and had to be intentional. The change in language provides consistency with the current enforcement of the rule.”

Another change adds the word “legally” to the current rule regarding when a throw-in ends. The revised rule will read, “The throw-in ends when the passed ball touches, or is legally touched, by another player who is either inbounds or out of bounds.”

In the past, the rule could reward a defensive team that committed a violation, such as kicking the ball during a throw-in. With the previous rule, if a throw-in was kicked by the defense, it could cause the offensive team to be disadvantaged from an alternating-possession standpoint. By adding “legally” to the current rule that defines when a throw-in ends, it eliminates this type of situation from happening.

Among other changes, compression sleeves were added to the list of items that can only be worn for medical reasons, along with guards, casts, and braces.

In addition, the committee added a signal for when a defender is not in a closely guarded situation. The signal will be a spreading of the arms, as is currently done at the college level.

Next season also will mark the institution of a rule passed in 2004 that will mandate that home teams wear white jerseys while road jerseys remain a dark color. The rule previously stated that home teams would wear light-colored jerseys, but the NFHS said at the time it voted for the change that as teams started using colors such as gray or yellow for home jerseys, some confusion surfaced as home jerseys began to resemble road jerseys.