The Boothbay Region High School baseball team wrapped up their 2016 campaign with a 11-1 defeat at the hands of St Dominic’s Academy on May 31 at Sherman Field in Boothbay Harbor. The loss dropped the Seahawks to 1-15 but despite their record, Boothbay skipper Josh Garneau said the program is slowly turning the corner.

“Our hitting greatly improved over last year,” said Garneau. “They put the ball in play more. To sum up the season, it really came down to one thing — throwing strikes.”

Garneau said the Boothbay hurlers struggled to find the strike zone which led to walks, long innings and eventually errors. Preaching the importance of fundamentals throughout, Garneau saw a marked improvement in the second half of the season.

“If the other pitchers could have thrown more strikes, we would have won more games and been in a lot more close ones,” he said.

Garneau singled out sophomore pitcher Cameron Crocker for consistently getting ahead of hitters and keeping them off balance. The Seahawks’ lone win — a 13-3 rout of Mt Abram on May 6 — was easily the season’s highlight. The win was also the first victory for Boothbay in nearly three years.

While next year's team looks promising, the team will lose four seniors — center fielder Xavier Downing, left fielder Gabe Purin, first baseman Doug Steinmetz, and outfielder Cole Barter.

“It's a big hole to fill; that's 75 percent of our total innings pitched,” said Garneau. “But our main pitchers will be back to build upon the experience they gained this year.”