2015 Journal Tribune High School Baseball Preview

OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Keil Martin is trying to build something special at Old Orchard Beach High School ”“ and the head baseball coach believes that, over time, he will be able to do just that.

Martin, who is in his fourth season as the leader of the Seagulls program, brings back nine players from last year’s 6-11 squad, but this OOB team is still young.

“We’re kind of still in a building phase because we have so many young kids,” said Martin.

Martin says the returning players are vital to the rebuilding process at OOB.

“Those are guys that if I didn’t have them we wouldn’t have much of a season,” said Martin.

Those returning players include Thomas Fregeau, Dylan Creswell, Sam Custeau, Logan Melnick and Evan O’Donnell ”“ all of whom Martin has high expectations for this season.

The most important player on this year’s team may be Fregeau.

“He’ll pretty much run through a wall for me,” said Martin on Fregeau. “He’s real vocal and a team player. He’s a leader on the team.”

Melnick and Custeau will also be key for the Seagulls as two of their top pitchers ”“ and Martin is hoping O’Donnell will be able to join them on the mound at some point.

“He’s a big strong kid, he can throw the ball hard and he can play pretty much everywhere,” said Martin of O’Donnell, who is dealing with an arm injury. “Hopefully we can get his arm healthy and get him on the mound as well.”

Martin is trying to keep his team in the right mindset, which includes being willing to make mistakes.

“A lot of positivity,” Martin said on his attitude with the Seagulls. “It’s just kind of having a short-term memory as far as if you make a mistake ”¦ kind of just move on to the next play.”

Martin also stresses the importance of practicing the right way.

“In practice we really preach doing the right things like you would do in the game. If you’re in batting practice, you are hustling back and forth, you’re working on your game, you’re working on your base running, you’re working on getting better jumps on the ball, you’re working on handling the bat a little bit,” said Martin.

For Martin, it’s also important to see his team work on being disciplined.

“Kind of just keep on them. The disciplinary things are more because they are young kids and they have a lot of energy,” said Martin, who believes his team has the right attitude. “So they are little bit goofy, but as far as wanting to do well and having a common goal in being successful, we’ve got that right now and we can really only go up from where we are right now.”

One thing that Martin ”“ along with most high school coaches ”“ has had to deal with is a lack of baseball knowledge when players reach the high school level.

“I think it’s kind of a widespread thing. I think kids don’t learn the basics when they’re younger in Little League and coming up through into senior league and legion baseball. There is definitely some of that on the team. I guess really the issue is, kids just don’t go out and play anymore by themselves,” said Martin.

Martin is happy that he has some players who are committed to the sport and take the time to play outside of the high school game.

“I do have a couple kids that will (go out and play). For example, Thomas Fregeau, he grabs a couple guys and they’ll go grab some baseballs and take (batting practice) and they make a pickup game out of it,” said Martin. “It’s good to see that on the team ”¦ trying to bring back that culture a little bit, you know always playing, always having fun with it rather than just showing up to the field as a job. It’s really not a job, they should be having fun.”

The Seagulls head into today’s game at Sacopee Valley with a 1-0 record after taking down Buckfield in the season opener ”“ and Martin believes that first win was huge for his team.

“It’s always big to get that first win. It builds a lot of confidence with the kids, especially having such a young team,” said Martin. “Confidence is a big thing because if they don’t have that confidence going into games, especially our big games, it just puts us behind the eight ball ”¦ we are going to be facing some pretty decent competition. We’ve got Sacopee coming up (today) and they are a good team.”

Martin is hoping confidence will breed confidence and that his team will believe in themselves each time they hit the diamond.

“We just need to go in knowing we can compete with teams and battle with them. Winning that first game really exemplifies that and shows us that we have the ability to do well,” said Martin.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at [email protected] or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.