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Senators manager Shields resigns; Fecteau takes reigns
Haymarket Senators manager Bill Shields has resigned from the team and is being replaced by pitching coach Ryan Fecteau.According to Bernie Schaffler, one of the four owners of the Senators, the decision for Shields to step down came last Thursday. The Senators' Web site announced the resignation Monday afternoon, stating Shields left "to pursue another opportunity."
The split between the first-year manager and team was amicable and mutually accepted as the best idea, said Schaffler, though he declined to elaborate on the specifics regarding Shields's departure.
As of Tuesday morning, Haymarket (15-23) was in fourth place in the Valley Baseball League north division and tied for seventh place with Harrisonburg overall in the league. The top three teams from each the north and south divisions are automatically granted spots in the post-season as are the teams with the next two best records.
Harrisonburg and Haymarket were holding on to those final two spots prior to press time Wednesday, leading Woodstock (14-24) and New Market (13-25).
Despite the sub-.500 record, the Senators improved during Shields’s tenure compared to the 11-32-1 season Haymarket sustained under Brian Midkiff. After the now-former-manager from Massachusetts submitted his resignation July 17, Haymarket lost three out of its next four games.
Fecteua completed his rookie season for Southern Utah University as pitching coach this past spring and will still have assistant coach Bill Grimm working with him for the Senators. While a pitching coach for Saint Lawrence University in New York in 2006, the pitching staff for the NCAA Div. III school accumulated a 2.96 ERA and the team won its conference tournament championship.
The new Senators manager played for Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire for four years and ended his tenure as pitcher there with the most wins (20), innings pitched (312), strikeouts (254) and complete games (16) in team history, according to the SUU Web site. He also held opposing batters to a .236 batting average.
Fecteau had been around a wooden bat league similar to the Valley Baseball League from 2002-04 as a member of the Watertown Wizards in the New York Collegiate Baseball League where he was selected as an all-star and his team’s pitcher of the year in 2004.
Haymarket is set to close out the regular season Sunday at Battlefield High School against the second-place Fauquier Gators of Warrenton. Game time is 7:30 p.m.
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