Like a lot of our neighbors to the north, Mekae Hyde felt sufficiently at-home after a couple of short visits to Old Orchard Beach that he’s decided to spend the bulk of this summer in the seaside tourist town.

Hyde, the Bates College catcher and former Lewiston High School star, has signed to play this summer with the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

The three-year-old wooden bat league has nine franchises —  five in Massachusetts, two in New Hampshire and one each in Connecticut and Maine. It features college players from all over the country, although the league’s “New England rule” requires that 50 percent of its teams’ rosters be comprised of players who are either from New England or who play at a New England college.

“I’m excited to play in a league of this caliber,” said Hyde, who is Bates’ sophomore starting catcher.

Hyde played summer baseball in Myrtle Beach, NC and for the Lewiston-based American Legion state champion runner-up Pastime Club last year. He’s glad to be spending the bulk of this summer closer to home.

“Playing and living in Myrtle Beach was a great experience, probably the best time in my life, but there’s nothing better than playing in front of some familiar faces,” said Hyde, who played at The Ballpark during last year’s state tournament and the 2011 New England Regional tournament.

Hyde heard about the opportunity to play at Old Orchard Beach through Bates coach Mike Leonard. Raging Tide general manager Taylor McCarthy said he got good reports on Hyde from Leonard, and the team is excited to add its first player from Bates College who can solidify their roster at catcher.

“We heard from his coach that he had a great year last year. He had nothing but good things to say about him, so for us it was an obvious move because not only was he a great player but he also added to that local flavor,” McCarthy said.

“Last year, we were kind of struggling at the catcher position,” he added. “We couldn’t get enough catchers. We’d bring catchers in and they’d usually get hurt,”

This is the Raging Tide’s third year in Old Orchard Beach and second under its current owners, OOB residents John and Pam Gallo .

For the first 10 years of their existence, they were based in Lowell, Mass., and known as the Mill City All-Americans and later the Lowell All-Americans. They played in the New England Collegiate Baseball League until 2012, when they and the North Shore Navigators switched to the FCBL as part of a wider league expansion.

The Raging Tide finished 9-33 and in last place in their inaugural season, then improved to 23-30 and seventh place in 2012. This summer, they’ll play a 54-game season which opens June 6 at The Ballpark and concludes Aug. 8.

The league draws collegiate baseball players from around the country who stay with host families during the summer.

“It’s great because you get to see guys from the big schools like Santa Clara University, Boston College, Virginia Tech, but also kids from right in your backyard, like Mekae from Bates, kids from Bowdoin, from St. Joe’s, from USM,” McCarthy said.

FCBL games are frequented by scouts from Major League Baseball and give the players, especially those who aren’t scouted as often, an opportunity to not only hone their skills but get noticed.

“A lot of the attraction is exposure,” Hyde said. “There are a lot of scouts at those games, with a lot of guys from Division I and mid-level D-I schools that they’re there to see. Division III players don’t get that kind of exposure as often, so you want to take advantage of it.”

“The appeal for the players is a lot of times the scouts are looking at how many games these guys are going to play. A lot of our players are from the Northeast and they’re playing maybe 40 games in their season, with maybe 10 games in warm weather,” McCarthy said. “The appeal to them is they’re going to get noticed by a lot of scouts. This not only gives them the extra exposure, but it also kind of seasons them so they can be ready for their next season when they go back to college.”

A 5-foot-10, 190-pound left-handed hitting catcher and outfielder, Hyde is batting .375 (6-for-16) with a triple and three RBIs in six games for the Bobcats this season. His team-leading five walks raise his on-base percentage to a gaudy .524.

As a freshman, Hyde finished fourth on the team in batting (.319), slugging percentage (.440) and runs scored (23), second in stolen bases (9) and third in home runs (2). He was a four-year starter at Lewiston, leading the Blue Devils to the 2011 Eastern Class A title, and led Gayton Post to back-to-back state Legion titles. With Gayton’s successor, Pastime, last season, he reached the state championship game and lost to First Title, a team that included his future Raging Tide teammate, Louis DiStasio.

Hyde sees playing in the FCBL as a challenge that can only help him improve on both sides of the ball. He prefers hitting with wooden bats, but doing so in a ballpark which, over the last two summers, he’s discovered isn’t exactly a launching pad, will force him to become an even more well-rounded hitter.

And as he found out last summer in Myrtle Beach, learning how to handle an unfamiliar pitching staff, pretty much on the fly, may be the toughest test of all.

“It’s difficult because pitcher/catcher relationships are important, and when you go into summer leagues, you don’t really develop that until mid-summer,” he said.

Mid-summer-like weather can’t get here soon enough for Hyde. The Bobcats have had their last four scheduled games postponed by weather, so they haven’t played since the conclusion of their annual trip south on Feb. 24. They are 4-2 and are scheduled to take the field again for a doubleheader at Salem State on March 23. The home opener against Husson is scheduled for March 24.

“We’re off to a pretty good start,” Hyde said. “I’m excited for this season. I just want to get on the field again.”

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