BETHEL – Telstar coach Bob Remington let it slip that his best pitcher, considered by some the best in the MVC, Terry Collins, has been developing a new pitch.

“Should we say?” Remington asked his junior ace. “I don’t think he’s far from using it.”

“It doesn’t matter to me,” Collins said. “If I’ve got it going, they’re not going to be able to hit it anyways.”

“It” is a split-fingered fastball, and if Collins starts mixing it with a fastball he’s capable of throwing in the low to mid 80s and a curveball which drops off a tall table, he’ll be harder to hit than he already is, which has been pretty close to flawless.

Collins didn’t give up an earned run until his fifth start this season and still hasn’t lost a game. Lisbon proved it wasn’t impossible to hit the right-hander by getting 10 hits off of him in a Telstar victory earlier this week. But Remington said that game was even more indicative of what makes Collins tick than his most dominant performances against Wiscasset and Monmouth.

“I think his strength is his mound presence,” Remington said, noting how most pitchers would have been rattled by Collins’ sudden return to earth. “You’ve got to figure you’re going into a game and you’ve allowed only two (unearned) runs total in five games and all of a sudden they’re scoring runs. You’ve got to keep your composure, and it’s not an easy thing to do.”

It’s a lot easier to keep your composure when you have the aforementioned fastball that won’t overpower hitters but gets enough downward movement that they beat the ball into the ground more often than not and the best curve in the league.

“I don’t think anyone can hit it well,” Collins said. “All of the good hits they’ve gotten against me have been on my fastball.”

Collins learned the hook when he was about 12, and it helped Remington take notice when, as an eighth grader, he worked out with the Telstar varsity during pitchers and catchers week. What looked like an awkward throwing motion in the other throwing drills the Rebels did that week looked free and easy when Remington stuck Collins 60 feet six inches from home plate.

Collins threw strikes and kept the ball down enough during the preseason of his freshman year to earn a spot in the Rebels’ very deep and experienced rotation, and he lost only once. His sophomore year, though officially their No. 2 starter, he may have been team’s best pitcher, even though he had to take a week off due to some early-season elbow tenderness.

Alarms went off that perhaps Collins had relied on his curveball too often for too long, and his right arm was paying the price. But he felt and looked strong again after the week layoff.

“As it turned out, we were probably overly cautious,” Remington said. “After the rest, he came out and said it felt fine.”

Fine enough to add another arm-straining pitch, the split-finger. And he doesn’t seem to mind if the MVC or Western Class C knows it’s coming.