League leader
Islanders’ third baseman Dillon Doucette’s bat refreshed after a season off
Peakes native Dillon Doucette is among the top hitters in the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League.
Sometimes time off is just what the doctor ordered. Or in Dillon Doucette’s case exactly what his bat needed.
This season, the Charlottetown Gaudet’s Auto Body Islanders third baseman is rattling the New Brunswick Senior Baseball League with a fourth-best .385 average and league-best 26 RBIs.
That after playing only three games in 2014 because of work commitments. So, said Doucette, there’s something to that rest thing.
“A year off definitely did refresh me. I’m having fun, not putting too much pressure on myself. I think that’s the key. Whatever comes after that is a bonus,” said Doucette.
Doucette and the secondplace Islanders (12-7) host the last-place Saint John Alpines (318) in a doubleheader today at Memorial Field. Game 1 starts at 2 p.m.
Charlottetown leads the season series 5-1, including two shutouts, while outscoring the Alpines 45-16.
Doucette is just one of many Isles high in the batting roll this season. The squad has scored a league-best 113 runs and is driving in nearly six runs a game.
Doucette also leads the league in triples with two and he’s second in the circuit in hits (25), one behind league-leader and shortstop Dylan McKenna.
Sean Corcoran is third in average (.386) while McKenna is fifth (.371) and Morgan MacLean is seventh (.365).
Charlottetown has always been a strong defensive club with good pitching, but this season the bats have provided consistent run support.
And for Doucette it’s a matter of a maturing team.
“(For several years) it’s been the same group of guys. We’re a young team and still a young team, but everybody is starting to find their own in the league,” he said. “I just think hitting is contagious. We’ve got four or five guys hitting the ball, the 78-9 guys are getting on base and we keep rolling through.”
Pitching has benefitted from the power output, too, allowing hurlers more wriggle room on the mound.
Brody McDonald (1.85), Jacob Beck (2.02) and Jordan Stevenson (2.24) are fourth, fifth and sixth, respectively, in earnedrun average while Dan O’Shea (4.76 ERA) has the league’s lone no-hitter (a 3-0 defeat of Saint John).
“Our pitching has been great, too. Brody McDonald and Stevenson and Jake are bringing it every game, (as is) Dan O’Shea,” said Doucette.
So far, Doucette has adjusted to opposing pitchers adjusting to him.
He wasn’t sure he could after a weekend series where pitchers schooled him to the tune of one hit, but, he said, the poise he feels this season took over and re-focused his plate work.
“In my third year, I’m a little more confident, knowing what I can and can’t do,” he said. “If you have your confidence up, that’s a big part of the game.”
Charlottetown continues the home stand with matchup Tuesday against the Moncton Fisher Cats. First pitch is 7:30 p.m.