By Rich Fisher
As a pitcher for the Norwich Sea Unicorns baseball team, Mac Meara was living the dream while playing in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England.
“The stadiums are awesome,” said the 2023 Hamilton West graduate, who enjoyed an outstanding summer of baseball. “Everybody on our team said we have the best stadiums in any summer league in the country. It’s all minor league stadiums.
“I’m signing autographs for little kids! I used to be that kid at the Trenton Thunder. I’m probably not going to MLB but it’s still cool to see they want my autograph.”
Meara’s time with the Futures league’s top team was limited, but successful. After being promoted from the Trenton Generals of the East Coast Collegiate Baseball League, the former Hornet standout pitched in three games for the Unicorns, who won the league championship series for the second straight season. In 6.1 innings he allowed three hits, three walks and one run while striking out five with a 1.42 ERA.
While three games isn’t much of a sample size, just the fact Meara was promoted to the team made a statement. The Futures league is ranked No. 7 among college summer leagues in the nation.
And it was all by design according to his coaches at Catholic University, where Meara had a 3.95 ERA in 13.2 innings his freshman season. He struck out 19 and walked 10 in six relief appearances.
“We had a really big roster, maybe about 28 pitchers so I knew it would be tough to throw,” Meara said. “I was pretty happy with how I did. It was more just the walks that I struggled with. I definitely like college ball better than anything else. You live with the guys all year, you’re so close with them, you’re playing such a long season. We had a great season, we made it to the (NCAA Division III) regional final. I definitely love where I’m at.”
And Catholic head coach Ross Natoli loves having Meara there.
“Mac made an immediate impact on our team this past spring,” Natoli said. “He pitched in multiple high leverage situations which led to wins over some of our toughest opponents, including three Top 25 teams.”
The next step for Meara was to improve himself with a strong summer campaign. Apparently, things worked out exactly as hoped.
“We set a plan that he would be an All Star for the Generals and then have a chance to pitch in the playoffs in one of the top leagues in the country for one of the best coaches in summer baseball, Kevin Murphy,” Catholic Associate head coach Bobby Picardo said. “You love when goals are set, challenges made, and players rise to the opportunity.”
Meara did his part to support the first part of the plan, as he pitched a scoreless inning in the CCBL All Star game. In seven appearances, including six starts, Meara had a 1.17 ERA in 26 innings. He struck out 23, walked 13, had a 1.31 WHIP and teams batted .216 against him.
“Mac threw very well this summer,” Trenton General Manager Mike Olshin said. “He has the size (6-3, 205 pounds) and ability to be an awesome pitcher and I expect him to take another leap forward for Catholic in 2025.
“He can command it to both sides of the plate. As he keeps building experiences, he’s going to be tough to beat.”
What impressed Generals head coach Mike Coryell the most, was Meara’s burning desire to pitch. The veteran baseball man recalled Trenton’s first weekend in Scranton, which didn’t start well for the hurler.
“Mac pitched to one kid, and comes jogging off the field into the dugout and proceeds to (throw up),” Coryell said. “I told our next pitcher to go get loose. Mac looked up from the garbage can and said ‘I’m not coming out!’ He threw a complete game, gave up two hits and no runs. He’s a real competitor.”
The left-hander enjoyed his time with Trenton and felt that it was a good stepping stone to the Futures league.
“A lot of people don’t realize how much talent there is out there,” he said. “Even with the local leagues I knew I could get innings which is what I wanted. You’re still facing good talent. We were playing a range of mid majors with D-1 to D-3 and JUCO players. It was definitely a good way to get my reps in and my innings in that I needed, and it got me the opportunity to go up to Norwich.”
The Catholic coaches monitored Meara’s progress through on-line stats and videos, and were impressed enough by what he did to secure him a spot with Norwich. They liked that he would be with Murphy, the pitching coach at Amherst College, and that he would be teamed with Catholic teammate and classmate Luke Cardman.
“We thought he could step up to the challenge with Norwich,” Natoli said. “This summer we wanted to see Mac improve his command of his secondary pitches to keep hitters off balance. It looks like he made significant progress there and his overall confidence seemed to shine through, as well.”
One of the main things Meara worked on this summer was his control. He liked that there were no radar guns at the games, which prevented him from wanting to overthrow to get his velocity up. Nonetheless, he improved his velo to a career-best 87 and admitted that when there were guns at a game “I was trying to get it up there a little bit.”
Just the fact his college coaches wanted him at Norwich was a confidence builder for Meara.
“It was very relieving,” he said. “All summer I had thought about what they said in my (exit) meeting that maybe at the end of summer I’ll get a shot somewhere. I left the end of July open on my calendar just hoping there would be something there. It all worked out. I was really excited.”
When he arrived in Norwich he not only enjoyed a familiar face in Cardman, but also Allentown High grad Jack Sweeney, who’s entering his freshman year at Rutgers (It was Rutgers Nick Tomasetto who hit a walk-off double in the playoff final to make Norwich the third team to ever back-to-back league titles).
“I ended up living with Sweeney,” Meara said. “It was nice to have him. We met at the Carpenter Cup last year and became friends from that. I reached out to him about what I needed and he helped me with that. I was assigned to his host family and he introduced me to a bunch of the guys.”
Along with the excitement of playing in minor league ballparks in front of huge crowds — Meara played before a league record 4,500 fans in one game — Mac has enjoyed playing with and against challenging competition.
“The talent is very good,” he said. “I’m probably one of the few D-3 kids on the roster. The defense at this level of play is crazy. There are so many diving plays made. It’s on another level. It’s a confidence booster.”
As for going against hitters, Meara said “I think working ahead really helps. If you fall behind and you’re 2-0 you really have to watch what you do because there’s a very good chance a kid can hit a ball off you.”
There is, however, one advantage for a pitcher.
“In summer leagues it’s wooden bats,” Meara said. “It makes you want to go at the hitters more no matter how good they are. In my last outing I gave up two balls to dead center that went 380 to the fence and were caught. With a metal bat those balls could be gone.”
The bottom line is that this summer has given Meara even more confidence as he returns to Catholic.
“Definitely,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to going back to school (he reports in late August). Me and Luke have gotten much closer, we’re both really excited to go back and take the stuff we learned up there and bring it back to our team. We know we’re gonna have a really good year this year so it’s exciting.”
Probably the best news for Meara is that his confidence is shared by Natoli.
Mac’s best baseball is ahead of him,” the coach said. “We’re excited to see him compete to the fullest in his sophomore year and beyond at Catholic.”
And if he has to sign a few more autographs along the way, Meara will be happy to oblige.
Hamilton High grad and pItcher Mac Meara in action for Catholic University. Meara spent the summer playing for the Norwich Sea Unicorns in the Futures Collegiate Baseball League of New England.,
