Pitcher’s got a rubber arm.

When you’re in Little League, that declaration is usually delivered in singsong fashion, and it’s clearly taunting. When you move up through the ranks and the muscles, tendons and ligaments get older, it’s considered a compliment.

Dustin Longchamps of Greene does more than fit the description. He defines it. For the second season in a row, the Lewiston High School graduate and former Central Maine Community College student has staked his claim as one of the most durable NCAA Division I hurlers in the country at the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore.

Longchamps launched his senior season by appearing in nine of the Hawks’ first 24 games, starting eight. He secured his second win of the spring Saturday over Coppin State, yielding only five hits and three runs while striking out seven.

In addition to lowering last season’s ERA by exactly one run to 3.40, Longchamps leads Maryland-Eastern Shore in virtually every other pitching category. Through 55 2/3 innings, opponents have mustered only 46 hits while batting .232. Longchamps has 47 strikeouts, putting him on pace to dwarf his 2006 total of 60.

Maryland-Eastern Shore started slowly against hefty competition, losing 18 of 21 before sweeping a three-game set over Coppin State to christen the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference schedule.

Longchamps went the distance in seven starts a year ago. The 6-foot, 185-pound right hander wound up 7-6 with a 4.40 ERA, making him the unquestioned ace on a team that went 17-34-1 overall. He was an All-MEAC second-team selection.

Prior to Longchamps’ transfer, Maryland-Eastern Shore won a total of 16 games and lost 118 in the previous three seasons.

At CMCC, Longchamps played two seasons of autumn baseball. He logged the only no-hitter in school history in 2003.

Woman for all seasons

Anyone who has followed the local sports scene with even passing interest is aware of the Dirigo High School girls’ basketball program and its streak of 11 regional championships from 1995 to 2005.

While there has been a steady parade of college basketball players from the SAD 21 community, not many female athletes have left Dirigo and emerged as multi-sport athletes in two games away from the hardwood.

One exception is Angie Fenstermacher of Peru, who is wrapping up a stellar NCAA Division III career at Maranatha Baptist Bible College in Watertown, Wis.

She’s making her final stand in softball, where she was 1-3 with a 5.30 ERA and three complete games on the Crusaders’ annual spring trip to Georgia and Tennessee. Most impressively, Fenstermacher didn’t issue a walk in 23 1/3 innings.

Fenstermacher also shone in soccer, where she earned Northern Athletics Conference honorable mention all four years. She concluded her career fourth on Maranatha’s all-time list with 77 games played (starting each of them) and was the Crusaders’ runaway leader with 1,488 minutes as a senior.

Maranatha named Fenstermacher its defensive MVP in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

On track to graduate in May with a humanities major and a coaching minor, Fenstermacher is the oldest of four siblings to make an athletic impact at Dirigo. Sister Abby is a senior basketball, soccer and field hockey standout. The sisters will be followed by brothers Aaron, a three-sport sophomore, and Arik, an eighth-grade pitcher.

Beware of the dogs

Mike Chamard and the Thomas College Terriers had to travel nearly 3,000 miles to win Waterville’s baseball bragging rights. Chamard, a Livermore Falls product, ripped a double in Thomas’ 11-3 rout of Colby on Tuesday in Chandler, Ariz.

The rout continued a hot start for the junior outfielder, who is batting over .500 and has hit safely in five of the Terriers’ first six games.

Three area players set the tone for Thomas’ only previous victory in the desert, a 5-2 verdict over Albright College. Chamard went 2-for-3, while Aaron Bouyea of Lewiston was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored.

Backing up the offensive outburst was Monmouth’s Brian Gardner, who scattered seven hits and allowed only two runs over the nine-inning route.

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