UMaine’s Cody Pasic, NU’s Ian Fair and Rhody’s Mark Coley set to thrive

Mark Coley spent last summer with the Pittsfield Suns of the Futures League. (Bret Munson/URI Athletics)

A college baseball player’s year is truly a grind, especially in New England.

Fall practices lead to long months of winter workouts that prepare players to be at their best when February and the start of a new spring season rolls around. When the season does end, however, players’ baseball journeys are hardly finished for the year.

The months of June, July and August present an opportunity — an opportunity for further development in elite leagues against some of the best players in all of college baseball. For New England natives, those opportunities can often be found right here at home in the Cape Cod, New England Collegiate Baseball League and Futures Collegiate Baseball League.

When players and their coaches talk about improvements from one year to the next, summer experiences are often to thank.

“The biggest thing I took away was that there are a lot of dudes out there that you don’t know about,” said Maine senior catcher Cody Pasic (Cotuit, Mass.), who helped his hometown Cotuit Kettleers win their first Cape League title since 2013. The former Barnstable High School star homered during the All-Star Game and in his team’s postseason run.