POLAND – He gets a hit half of the times he officially steps up to the plate, but Jacke MacVane still has moments when he loses patience with himself.

“There are still times when I expect more from myself than I think I should, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It helps me set goals for myself,” he said.

Poland Regional High School’s senior catcher was once a quick-tempered sophomore who was rather uncompromising if he wasn’t making progress toward his goals. Now, he’s a calming influence on a young team trying to regain a place among the Western Maine Conference elite.

He’s also an anomaly in baseball – a catcher who bats leadoff.

MacVane batted cleanup as a junior, where his job was to drive in his predecessor in the leadoff spot, Joe Douglass, a Mr. Baseball finalist.

“Watching Joe do it for the last few years, I’ve had a good example to know what to do,” he said.

It seems he was quite observant. He’s hitting .500 (with a .655 on base percentage), has scored 19 runs and stolen six bases.

“He went from a guy that was a very, very aggressive hitter – pretty much anything in the zone, he was going to hack at – to becoming much more disciplined, being able to get his pitch and being able to fight off pitches and go the other way,” Poland coach Dave Jordan said.

MacVane needed to improve more than his approach at the plate, though.

“A couple of years ago, I was that slow, big guy, but I did a lot of work in the off-season,” he said. “I did a lot of running and got in shape. I was pretty big, so I ran a lot and did some lifting during the off-season. I’m just really feeling comfortable up there.”

He’s equally adept at helping the Knights’ young pitching staff feel comfortable. After working with mound veterans such as Douglass, Jake Pelletier and Will Griffiths last year, MacVane is the steadying influence on the field for underclassmen Joe Murphy, Matt Brewster and Nick Douglass.

“He always keeps us calm and focused when we go in the dugout. He’s a good influence for us,” Murphy said. “On the pitcher’s mound, if you’re not on track, he’ll get you on track.”

“You’ve got to be patient with them,” said MacVane, who hopes to continue playing at the University of Maine at Farmington in the fall. “I’ve been there at one point. It’s a lot faster game going from freshman or JV jumping up to the varsity level. When I came up here sophomore year it was a lot faster than anything I’d experienced. I’m sure it was the exact opposite as now and the pitchers had to be more patient with me.”

“He’s a huge asset to have out there on the field,” Jordan said. “You can’t call a time out and go out and talk to your pitcher every time you see something. Jackie can do that for us. I can just mention something to him about the guy at bat, like ‘long swing,’ or ‘open it up’ and he knows where we need to pitch at that point. I don’t need to explain to him what I want with the pitcher.”

MacVane got a lot of that experience playing for teams that contended (and in 2007, won) conference championships. For the Knights, the 2008 season has been a roller-coaster ride typical of most young teams. He’s glad that he’s had a chance to learn the value of patience, and hopes a little of what he’s learned has rubbed off on his teammates.

“Two years ago, I think I would have been pretty upset about it,” MacVane said. “This isn’t really frustrating as much as it is a challenge. These guys have potential, they just have to realize it.”