Ashland Hornets look to build confidence
By Jon Gulliver
Staff Writer
ASHLAND — The numbers game hasn’t been kind to the Ashland District High School baseball team. Last spring the school had a hard time fielding a team with only 11 players on the roster, including six who had never played baseball before.
ON THE MOUND — Ashland’s Tyler Chasse toes the rubber in a game against Central Aroostook earlier this spring. Chasse is one of only 10 players on the Hornets squad this year. 
This year the Hornets only have 10 players on the team, but there is a little more experience than the 0-15 team of last season.
Coach Dan Cote is a seven-year veteran and again has to work to rebuild the program, with players having to learn new positions.
“It’s certainly a learning curve,” he said.
With only 10 kids on the team everyone will get to play. Cote said senior Brandon Carney will likely hit first and play leftfield. Batting second through nine are: freshman Michael Cook (second base, third base), senior Royce MacDonald (shortstop, pitcher), freshman Mark Chasse (catcher), senior Tyler Chasse (shortstop, pitcher), freshman Cody Blair (pitcher, shortstop, infield), junior J.J. Dozier (third base, outfield), junior Zack Porter (outfield), seniors Brad Jenks and Matt Sutherland will both play the outfield and hit at the bottom of the order.
Cote is keeping his approach simple this year.
“We have to improve our play game-by-game,” he said. “Some teams lost a lot of players and may fall a little. We have to make the other team put the ball in play and not walk a lot of hitters like last year. We have to be more competitive to give ourselves confidence.”
