PI boys reach goal of playoffs
The Presque Isle Wildcat baseball team, under first-year coach Derrick Kinney, had an up-and-down season, culminating in Monday’s 4-0 loss to Camden Hills in the Eastern Maine Class B prelims.
The team’s 8-8 regular season record had them sitting in 11th place in the Heal Point standings to earn the meeting with the Windjammers.
Kinney, a Presque Isle graduate and former Wildcat baseball player, really enjoyed his coaching experience this year. In addition to his high school playing experience and a year at UMPI, Kinney held the middle school coaching position for eight years and also the varsity assistant coach job for a year.
“I have a lot of passion for the baseball program and take pride in being the head baseball coach. I learned a lot playing and coaching under the direction of Tim Olore,” he said.
Kinney enjoyed working with this group of young men and was pleased with the progress that the team made.
“This is a good group of boys with a good balance of six seniors, four juniors and five freshmen and sophomores,” explained Kinney, who was also quick to note the contributions of assistant coach Curt Paterson.
“His baseball knowledge and love for the game have been a huge asset here in my first year,” Kinney said.
The seniors are right fielder Bradley Guerrette, second baseman Cristian Nunez, pitcher/catcher Ben Buckley, pitcher/shortstop Andrew Patterson, third baseman Kyle Nadeau and centerfielder Jake Carter.
Juniors are left fielder/pitcher Caleb Nadeau, third baseman/shortstop Cooper Madore, catcher/DH/right fielder Kyle Rider, and right fielder/pitcher Sam Gray.
Rounding out the squad are sophomores Nick Bartlett, a first baseman; Bradley Kinney, a catcher/first baseman; Jake Kinney, a third baseman/left fielder; and freshman catcher Adam Paterson and freshman infielder R.J. Gross.
“Our team was anchored by our pitching with Ben Buckley and Andrew Paterson leading us,” Kinney continued.
Paterson battled some arm issues early in the season but got nearly back to where he wanted to be. Paterson finished the regular season with a 3-2 record and an earned run average of 3.08, while Buckley was a solid 4-2 with a stellar 1.67 ERA. Madore, Caleb Nadeau and Gray also saw mound action on the season for the Cats.
Offensively, PI seemed to take a while to get going. Many of their games were doubleheaders because of the travel, and throughout the year they averaged just over two runs for game in the first contests, and just under nine in the second.
Leading the way offensively was Gray with a .512 average, while Andrew Paterson has been excellent with a .463 mark. Six other batters are batting .300 or better, including Nunez, Buckley, Rider, Bartlett, Carter and Madore. Gray led the team with 19 RBIs and was certainly the most dangerous threat.
Presque lost to undefeated Old Town by a 2-1 score earlier in the spring and was only beaten by lopsided margins twice, so Kinney was encouraged by his team’s effort all season long.
“With several changes at the beginning of the season and some injuries, our goal was to just give ourselves a chance to play in the playoffs. We felt with our senior leadership and two strong pitchers, we would come together, learn from our mistakes and have a good chance to make a playoff run,” he said.
