For most high school athletes, Sunday is a day of rest.

For Tom Dennen, it’s the busiest day of the week.

Dennen, a senior at Camden Hills Regional High School in Rockport, is a stopper for the Windjammers’ boys soccer team from Monday through Saturday.

On Sunday, he’s the backstop for the Biddeford-based Maine Stags baseball team.

Dennen is one of just two Eastern Maine high school players on the Stags, along with Hampden Academy pitcher Pat Moran. The team is made up primarily of high school players from Greater Portland and York County, and plays a 16-game schedule consisting mostly of doubleheaders against teams from fall college-level and high school leagues.

For Dennen, the chance to play baseball once a week during the fall typically requires a 115-mile commute – one way – but to the 6-foot-3, 195-pound catcher it’s a small price to pay for the love of baseball.

“Being from Maine there’s not much of an opportunity after the summer is over to play baseball,” said Dennen, a third-year member of the Stags. “So to get to play two games every weekend is a good opportunity for me.”

The Stags’ home doubleheaders begin at noon at St. Louis Field, and consist of seven-inning contests with a 30-minute break between games. That means the Camden resident usually gets home about 7:30 on Sunday evening.

“It’s awesome to go down there and play,” he said “It’s a nice day off from soccer. The worst part is the drive home.”

But Dennen is used to driving long distances for baseball’s sake. In fact, he missed his team’s season opener against the Stags’ alumni team in order to participate in the Blue-Gray Classic, an amateur baseball showcase at Coastal Carolina University in Myrtle Beach, S.C.

During that event, Dennen tested out as the fastest catcher among 20 who attended.

A week earlier, he played in a similar showcase in Connecticut, playing for a team representing Frozen Ropes, a regional baseball training facility with a branch in Portland.

Dennen is a three-sport standout at Camden Hills. In addition to soccer, he plays baseball in the spring and basketball during the winter – when he’s not in the gym playing long toss with his father or hitting off a batting tee.

He finds the sports complementary.

“Soccer is great for working on foot skills,” he said, “and with basketball there’s so much quickness and agility involved because you’re going back and forth all the time.”

Dennen admits baseball is his favorite sport, a fact borne out by his commitment to playing in the fall, which he’s doing for the fourth straight year.

“It’s just a good way to play with and meet some new guys, and play against some good competition,” he said. “It’s laid back, playing just once a week. But once we get there we play hard because we play to kick some butt.”

The Stags’ schedule includes matchups against the Maine Diamond Dogs, a semipro all-star team from southern Maine; the Augusta Fall League all-stars, comprised of players from a six-team league of high school-age players from the Augusta area; the Southern Maine Senior League all-stars, and a Sept. 7 doubleheader in Orono against the University of Maine club team, an intramural all-star team that plays against like programs at universities in the region.

The twinbill at UMaine will represent an especially short trip for Moran, who is coming off a strong summer of American Legion baseball. The right-hander went 6-0 to help Brewer win the Legion’s Zone 1 championship, then pitched a no-hitter during the state AL tournament.

“Pat has the potential to be one of the top players in the state next spring, and his Stags’ experience this fall will be a big factor in his future success,” said Brian “Ziggy” Gillespie, a 2000 inductee into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame who coaches the Stags.

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net