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07/27/2017 12:00 AMThe 2017 spring season was filled with major milestones for Toby Marineau and the Vinal Tech High School baseball squad. It was a season in which Toby put himself on the map behind a dominant pitching performance, while helping his team get back on the map by ending its lengthy postseason drought.
Toby, an Old Saybrook resident who will be entering his sophomore year at Vinal Tech in Middletown, began playing baseball at the age of eight and has been developing his pitching skills ever since. All the hard work paid off as a freshman for Toby, who notched a record of 7-2 with a 1.37 earned-run average and 88 strikeouts to help Vinal Tech make states for the first time in a decade. On top of that, Toby also pitched a perfect game this season.
“We won a lot of games this year, because we kept hitting the ball and getting guys out,” says Toby. “My fastball and my curveball are my favorite pitches to throw. I like the curve. It gets more outs, and I can keep batters guessing, because it’s the same arm motion as my fastball.”
Toby worked a lot on upping his velocity on the radar gun during the offseason that preceded him entering high school. However, even though Toby likes to bring the heat, he also realizes the importance of having a fighter’s mentality where he’s never down and out on the mound.
“I think I improved in my speed as a pitcher. I added a couple miles per hour to my pitches after taking lessons in the offseason to increase my speed,” says Toby, who plays summer ball for the Connecticut Heat AAU team. “You have to have a positive attitude and not have bad body language, because then the rest of team recognizes it, and then they’ll be bummed.”
Toby uses a versatile arsenal of pitches to keep opposing batters guessing. Vinal Tech skipper Doug Curtis says that Toby is a tireless worker when it comes to refining his craft.
“Toby spends a lot of time working at the game. He prepares diligently in the offseason. He takes instruction well and is a hard-working kid,” says Curtis. “I tried to have him throw his fastball more. He loves his curve, but you have to mix your pitches more in varsity. He started throwing it more, and it helped make his curve more effective. He pounds the strike zone. He did an exceptional job of throwing strikes and will get better. Without him this year, we would’ve won only six or seven games.”
Toby’s finest outing this spring came against Capital Prep, when he tossed perfect game with 16 strikeouts. Of course, Toby wasn’t expecting to retire all 21 batters that he faced, but he was bolstered by a full coat of confidence on his way to painting perfection.
“Even after the game, the Capital Prep players came up to me and said what a great game I pitched. I felt we were going to win that game, and I knew I would get them out,” Toby says. “After, I felt positive and happy, because I was getting outs for our team, and the win got us closer to states.”
There’s no question that Toby has a passion for baseball. Perhaps the only thing he enjoyed more than delivering on the mound for Vinal Tech this year was doing so alongside a group of upbeat teammates with whom he loves playing the game.
“I love pitching in baseball. It’s fun to get people out with my fastballs and curveballs,” says Toby, who thanks his family and the Vinal Tech baseball fans. “The players made this year special. We were all together and all friends. We helped pick each other up after a mistake. When it came to fielding or hitting, we never had a bad attitude after a strikeout or error.”