Two pitching recruits choose UMaine over major leagues

The 2007 recruiting season has been more like a sport fishing trip for University of Maine baseball coach Steve Trimper.

The Black Bears needed pitching, and Trimper was casting his line far and wide to find it. The second-year head coach hooked a couple of blue chip prospects in what looks like a promising catch, but for the last two months, he has had to play the waiting game while keeping them on the line.

After both Kyle Benoit of Brampton, Ontario, and Kyle Slate of Sea Bright, N.J., were drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 35th and 36th rounds, respectively, of the Major League Baseball amateur draft in June, Trimper has been glued to his cell phone and sweating it out.

He can turn the ringer off and plug the phone back into the recharger now that Wednesday’s deadline for drafted players to sign has come and gone without either pitcher signing a pro contract.

“We’re extremely excited. I haven’t slept much in the last couple days, but it’s great to have both these guys coming to play for us,” said Trimper, who considers both players to be front-of-the-rotation starters.

The 5-foot-11, 190-pound Benoit was unbeaten this season and played for Team Canada after pitching for Team Ontario last year. He throws a 94 mph fastball, changeup, splitter and curveball.

“He’s also one heck of a hockey player and really only started playing baseball the last 12 months,” Trimper said. “He just has a God-given arm, usually pitches in the 90s, and has a pretty good idea how to pitch. He is Eric Gagne-like. That’s exactly who he reminds me of.”

The son of Cathy and Gerry Benoit plans to study kinesiology and turned down a six-figure offer from the Phillies to come to Maine.

“They [Philadelphia] made it easy to decide,” Benoit said. “I really liked Maine. The atmosphere was really nice, people are friendly, and it’s close to home. Mostly, I wanted to go to school. I want something to fall back on after baseball.”

It didn’t hurt that Benoit’s favorite hockey player, Paul Kariya, attended UMaine. Younger brother Ryan, a high school junior hockey standout, really wants to come to Maine as well, according to his mom.

Slate is a 6-foot-6, right-handed starter who went 11-1 with a 0.38 ERA and 107 strikeouts in 73 innings for Christian Brothers Academy of Lincroft, N.J.

“It came down to the last minute, but I’m 100 percent decided,” Slate said six hours before Tuesday’s midnight deadline. “I was at a workout with them Monday in front of 15 to 20 scouts. They made an offer five hours later and my family and I discussed it, but we all felt the best thing for me to do was to go to UMaine.”

Slate said the Phillies offered an $80,000 signing bonus and another $80,000 for his college education whenever he decided to go to school.

“I think college will be huge preparation for me to be a pro and I just didn’t think I was ready yet, not just as a player, but also as a person,” said Slate, who’s undecided on his major. “and I’m pretty confident we’ll [he and Benoit] make a big impact at Maine.”

Slate throws a fastball in the upper 80s and low 90s, but it was his other stuff that caught Trimper’s eye.

“He may not be up to 92-93 yet, but he does have two legit pitches that are outstanding in his splitter and changeup,” Trimper said. “He has what I consider major league offspeed stuff right now.”

Trimper said the addition of 6-2, 185-pound Massachusetts native Kevin Scanlon (undecided) and 6-4, 220-pound Curacao native Jonathan Balentine (engineering) makes his incoming pitching class very solid.