Juniors Ryan Turgeon and Ian Pullen inspire

St. Dom’s.
By Randy Whitehouse
Staff Writer

AUBURN – It was one win out of 14 so far this year for St. Dom’s, and the Saints hope there are more memorable wins to come.

But since they don’t start their postseason until today against ninth-seeded Winthrop, the top-seeded Saints look back on their second game of the season as, if not their turning point, their springboard.

The Saints would have had plenty of excuses to bow to their opponent that day, Gray-New Gloucester. For one, the Patriots are considered one of the top teams in Class B, and the Saints, a Class C power, were missing two of their key seniors, Tyler Turgeon and Nic Albert.

But behind strong three-hit pitching from Ryan Turgeon and a clutch triple from catcher Ian Pullen, St. Dom’s pulled out a narrow 3-2 victory.

“It was towards the beginning of the season, and to go down there without Tyler or Nic, who are two of our main guys, and get a win, definitely gave us a big lift,” Pullen said.

“We needed some leadership and those two guys single-handedly got the team going,” said coach Allan Turgeon. “They were not going to let the team lose. You could see the determination in their faces. It brought out the best in everybody else on the team.”

Not that the Saints expected anything different from the two juniors.

“They’re our go-to guys, and they get the job done,” Turgeon said. “We’ve got a team that prides itself on balance, but when we need the big play, we look to those two to make it.”

They’ve done it numerous times on the mound, where Turgeon (1.17 ERA) and Pullen (1.94 ERA) lead a pitching staff that has posted a 1.43 ERA.

Turgeon is the staff’s ace, posting a 5-1 record while striking out nearly one batter per inning. He and his older brother Tyler, a senior, have formed the backbone of the Saints’ pitching staff the last three years.

Pullen, who saw most of his time at catcher before this year, became a regular in the rotation and along with the Turgeon brothers, Jack Lavoie and Jim Mayo, has given the Saints one of the deepest pitching corps in Class C.

“Ian has done a lot of catching, so he knows how the staff works and he’s fit right into that and grown an awful lot as a pitcher,” Allan Turgeon said. “He’s really a crafty, smart pitcher, and I think the catching aspect of his game is really what brought that out.”

Ryan Turgeon welcomed his friend’s addition to the staff.

“It takes a little pressure off of me and the other pitchers to know that we can give the ball to Ian and he’ll do a great job and give us a chance to rest our arms,” he said.

Not surprisingly, Turgeon and Pullen speak of their teammates with the same kind of confidence. It’s a big reason why the Saints think they’ll go deep into this year’s playoffs.

“Each player on the team can pretty much come through in any situation,” Pullen said. “We don’t have any one player that’s going to hurt us.”

“The key is going to be pitching,” Ryan Turgeon said. “We feel like we have a really solid defense. It’s going to come down to whether we’re hitting the corners or leaving the ball over the plate.”

Mistake-free baseball is tough to ask for, even in the playoffs. The Saints learned this the hard way last year, when they made several crucial mistakes late in a playoff game with Hall-Dale and ended up squandering a 4-1 lead before getting knocked out by the Bulldogs.

But Allan Turgeon thinks this year, with his two junior “go-to guys” setting the tone, the Saints won’t let them snowball as they have in the past.

“They don’t let a mistake get them down,” he said. “Mistakes happen from time to time, but they don’t let it cause another mistake.”