North Haven High Baseball Itching for Pitching

Pitchers and catchers workouts began this week for North Haven High School's baseball team.

Returning players as well as a score of new faces hit the hardwood inside the gym to sharpen their skills with Indians' head coach Bob DeMayo and staff. DeMayo is entering his 53rd season as North Haven's baseball coach and is also the state's all-time leader in wins. It's safe to say, he's been through the fostering of new talent many times.

"Everything here is very general, we can't have bats, we can't have any game-type situations," said DeMayo. "It's a very limited kind of workout. What we do is take some of our young kids and work with them. I take two pitchers at a time and work them while the other pitchers work on drills on the other side of the gym."

North Haven has very few innings of varsity experience coming into the 2011 campaign. The Indians finished last year's season 12-8, upsetting No. 2 seeded Bethel and advancing all the way to the CIAC Class L semifinals where they lost to Sheehan-Wallingford. 

DeMayo doesn't concern himself with the past, only the talent he has at hand.

"Right now we're young," he said. "So, it's on me to take the time to work with them." 

The Indians only returning seniors with varsity experience were position players last year. The goal now is finding a serviceable pitcher to help North Haven keep up the competitive level of play demonstrated in the last two seasons.

"We're searching," said DeMayo. "But we'll get there."