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09/06/2017 12:00 AMOne of the things Mike Stebbins loves the most about baseball is how every individual needs to do his part to contribute to the greater good of the team. This summer, Mike’s personal performance went a long way toward helping the Guilford Junior Legion baseball squad have a season that was filled to the brim with success.
Mike, a junior at Guilford High School, was an outfielder who also took the pitcher’s mound for the Post 48 Juniors in the recent summer season. Mike went 4-1 on the year with a 2.66 earned-run average and walked just five batters in 28.2 innings of work, helping Guilford earn a second-place finish in Zone 5-3 on its way to winning 16 games and reaching the sectional finals of the State Tournament.
“I love baseball so much because it’s team based, which I like, but you can also isolate yourself, too, and it allows you to let everything out on the field,” says Mike. “I was able to practice by myself by throwing at home and working on my swing. I also got more reps in the infield. I also improved on being bigger and stronger as I’ve gone through high school and getting more fit for the game.”
Summer baseball features a bit of a different feel than the spring with 20-plus games condensed into just more than a month of regular season play. While working hard throughout the busy season, Mike dealt with the packed schedule by keeping cool amidst the summer heat.
“Legion baseball is a lot of fun, because I love my coaches and teammates,” Mike says. “It’s also a more relaxed vibe, and there’s more time to get better while playing. It helps to create more fun towards the game.”
Post 48 skipper Jon Reinecke says that Mike was always kept his composure on the hill, while showing a knack to strike out batters at a moment’s notice.
“Where Mike was most valuable was on the mound. He had a confidence and a calmness that the kids really admired from him,” says Reinecke. “He is able to throw three pitches for strikes at any count, which keeps batters off-balance. He won’t overpower you with a fastball, but he will spot it, and keep you off-balance with his curveball and changeup.”
Post 48’s postseason push came on the heels of a high school campaign in which the Indians saw their own share of playoff prosperity by reaching the Class L State Tournament quarterfinals. Mike doesn’t think that there were any specific adjustments on the mound or in the batter’s box that ramped up the success in town. Instead, he feels that it’s stemmed from a bigger focus on camaraderie in dugouts that are filled with synergy.
“We got better as a team and in a family oriented way in both cases this year,” Mike says. “We had great chemistry this year, we showed emotion, and pushed ourselves to win. We always had a fun time when we played, which made us play better.”
Looking toward the future, Mike wants to keep improving as a baseball player, so he can have even bigger role in the Legion program, while becoming a part of an Indians’ squad that hopefully goes a few steps further in 2018.
“My main goal is to win. I want to see our high school team go deeper in states and maybe win states,” says Mike, who thanks his dad Mike, along with Coach Reinecke and Junior Legion assistant coach JP Peters. “For myself, I want to improve and do the best I can to play more in the future.”