SACO — The Thornton Academy baseball team began its preseason practice on Monday afternoon as pitchers and catchers reported for training.

The club has a different look this year after graduating seven seniors last spring, and also hiring a new head coach in Jason Lariviere.

Lariviere was a standout at Biddeford High School and would go on to play collegiate baseball for the University of Southern Maine from 1992 to 1995. He played in the Division III World Series with the Huskies and was named an All-American as both a junior and senior.

The new TA coach was then drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals and spent five years in the organization. He made the 1998 AA All-Star team and made it all the way to the AAA level before the end of his stellar playing career.

Lariviere currently owns and operates Hitters Count in Saco and runs the Southern Maine River Rats travel baseball program.

While his work with Hitters Count and the River Rats keeps him busy, coaching TA baseball was on Lariviere’s radar for a while, and he felt that this opportunity was the right time to step in.

“I wasn’t looking for a high school job at the time. I know a lot of people at TA, I know prior coach Greg Paradis, when it came open I thought about it a couple times. I met with (Athletic Director) Gary Stevens and (Headmaster) Rene Menard and thought about it, it has been a passion of mine to lead a high school team so I interviewed and got hired,” said Lariviere, who was inducted into the Maine Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014.

As the new head coach, Lariviere is expecting one of the toughest challenges to be getting to know the players as the regular season approaches.

“I’m definitely coming in blind right now. I’ve got butterflies getting know the kids. You have a short time to assess so you’ve got to figure out who plays where, there’s a game of chess being played. I don’t know them all that well so it’s going to be interesting,” said Lariviere.

Another task for the Trojans will be incorporating the young players into the system, considering the roster is made up largely of underclassmen.

“I was a pretty gritty player when I played and I expect hustle, discipline for the game, respect for the game, and it’s always team first. We want them to work hard, we want them to know what role to play and we want them to be all business. We only have a few seniors this year — they’ve been around a long time and they’re great leaders. You’ve got to build that kind of chemistry,” said Lariviere.

Although TA will be adapting to a new-look roster, there will still be plenty of depth in this group.

TA returns seniors such as Brogan Searle-Belanger, Brady Lambert and Grant Dow. The Trojans also return junior Luke Chessie and add transfers Cody Lambert and Cameron Seymour to the mix. 

Lariviere feels that his team has plenty of athletes to work with, and will have no shortage of ways to win ball games.

“I’m not afraid to play with the tools that we have. I’m not afraid to play small ball, I’m definitely an advocate for manufacturing runs if we need to. I think we have enough pitching to keep arms fresh during the beginning part of the year and ride them down the stretch,” said Lariviere. “I’m pretty excited about it, we have options.”

— Associate Sports Editor Alex Sponseller can be reached at asponseller@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 323. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.

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