LISBON — It wasn’t a particularly atypical debut for a freshman playing varsity baseball. Frank Angelico  struck out his first four times at bat in a game at Boothbay, all swinging.

Lisbon coach Randy Ridley noticed a pattern and sat Angelico down for a fairly typical coach/freshman baseball discussion.

“What are you striking out on?” Ridley asked his newest pupil.

“High fastballs,” Angelico responded.

“Why are you swinging at them?”

“I used to hit them all over the field last year.”

“What grade were you in last year?”

“Eighth.”

“You’re at the varsity level now, Frank. You’re not going to be able to catch up with those as much. You need to be more selective.”

Angelico must have listened and laid off the high heat more, because he ended up hitting more than  .420 that season. It was the first in a series of adjustments that made him a four-year fixture in the lineup and on the mound for the Greyhounds.

After his sophomore year, Angelico gave up football and basketball to dedicate more time to improving at the sport he loved most. With his father, Frank, his teammate Alex Hall and Alex’s father, Norm, helping to provide motivation, instruction and rides to the Frozen Ropes and Maine Hits training facilities, he rose from a promising freshman to the man the Greyhounds want at the plate or on the mound in the big game.

“They always worked us and pushed us, because, I have to be honest with you, baseball training is sometimes quite monotonous. When you have coaching behind you, it makes it easier,” he said.

“He’s a very smart kid when it comes to the game,” Ridley said. “He’s improved every year in some facet of the game. He’s put in all the extra time and effort to get to the level he’s at now.”

Angelico’s .409 average and 20 RBIs this year rank him at or near the top level of Mountain Valley Conference hitters. It was a considerable improvement from last season, when, he admits, he was too stubborn about pulling the ball.

Another adjustment made him a more complete hitter this year.

“What killed me last year was my stance. I was off-balance a lot,” he said. “I worked on spreading out my stance more to prevent dropping my back shoulder. Last year, everybody threw me outside and being a lefty and a pull hitter, it’s kind of hard to pull outside pitches. This year, I’ve actually had most of my hits to the opposite field.”

The pitching numbers aren’t quite as impressive as the hitting stats, but there is a reason for that. Angelico has a 3-3 record (and 35 Ks in 37 innings) because he started every big game for the Greyhounds.

He lost twice to St. Dom’s, but the contrast between the first loss and the second illustrate how he approaches pitching. He got racked by St. Dom’s in Game 1, a 10-0 loss. Angelico chalked it up to “poor preparation. They came prepared and we didn’t. I definitely didn’t.”

 “I haven’t gotten hit like that in a while, so it was kind of embarrassing,” he said. “A lot of the second game, I was just trying to get their respect, actually. We figured out they were keying on my outside pitches and my change-up, so I had to mix it all up and play to their game plan, and it seemed to work.”

“There was some second guessing about me throwing him the second game,” Ridley said, “because they already saw him and hit him well, but I said, ‘He’s a smart kid. He’s going to make the adjustments on those guys.”

Angelico rewarded Ridley’s faith. He gave up just four hits and two unearned runs, which were enough for the Saints to edge the Greyhounds, 2-1.

He hopes to reward it again, this time with a win, when he starts Thursday’s quarterfinal game against defending state champion Greely.

“It’s a really good feeling to know that your coach and your team have enough faith in you to put you up against the high-quality teams,” Angelico said.

The Greyhounds haven’t won a playoff game in the first three years of Angelico’s career. He still feels the sting of Lisbon losing big leads in tournament contests against Cape Elizabeth and Maranacook his freshman and sophomore years, and as much as he plans on approaching the duel with Greely as just another game, it’s clear when he talks about it that he’ll have at least one more adjustment to make come game-time — not letting the adrenaline take over too much.

“All of our losses have been pretty tough, and last year, we missed the playoffs by, like, point-something in the Heal Points,” said Angelico, who hopes to continue playing baseball at Central Maine Community College. “The character and heart on this team is pretty amazing. Every single game except the first St. Dom’s game, we’ve battled. We’ve worked for this all year.”

Angelico is one of six seniors who will be gone after the season ends. After that, it is Ridley and the Greyhounds who will have to adjust.

“We can talk shop all day long. He’s really knowledgeable about the game,” Ridley said. “I’m gonna miss the kid next year. He’s one of those kids that you can fill in his spot, but you can’t replace.”