FROED One Government Center Fall River, MA 02722-7700 Tel 508-324-2620 Fax 508-677-2840 info@froed.org		NOKONA A BIG HIT Hitquarters stresses fundamentals The Herald News, Friday, July 4, 2008 - Page C1 Fall River — During the winter of 1995, Shaun Skeffington and Marc Coriaty were fixtures at the batting cages located inside the Baseball Factory, located in a mill complex at the bottom of Pocasset Street. Each day after school, the two Durfee High teammates took turns pitching to each other, working on the swings that would help the Hilltoppers win the MIAA Division 1 state championship a few months later. These days Skeffington, now a teacher and the freshman baseball coach at Durfee, can still be found working in the batting cage, but instead of honing his own swing, the former University of Massachusetts-Amherst star is helping to instruct youngsters in the science and proper fundamentals of hitting a baseball. He’s the Director of Baseball Operations for the newly opened Nokona Hitquarters Baseball Academy, an 11,000 square foot indoor training facility that also has a large outdoor area right behind the Nokona Baseball Factory, located in the Fall River Industrial Park. “When Marc and I were hitting in the cages when we were in high school, it certainly helped us, but we never had any qualified people helping us,” explained Skeffington. “If we got into bad habits, we just made them worse. I think it definitely helped us that year, but we would have been even better if we had had proper instruction.” The Hitquarters has six indoor cages with two Iron Mike pitching machines and a pair of Bata machines. The Iron Mikes throw fastballs at a variety of desired speeds and can hold up to 100 balls for continuous work. The Bata is a curveball machine which must be fed individually. Players may also hit off a tee or face live pitching if they so choose. The fee per person is $35 per hour and it comes with an instructor. In fact, an instructor is mandatory. “If (former major leaguer) Greg Gagne were to come here to work with somebody, would an instructor still have to be present?” Skeffington was asked. “Yes, but of course we would defer to somebody like Greg when it came to the actual teaching,” he answered. “Still the instructor would have to be present. Maybe (the instructor) would throw batting practice or shag balls, but he’d still have to be there.” The outdoor facility is not an actual baseball diamond and cannot accommodate games. It is a training area with a mound located 60 feet from home plate, but the bases are set at 60 feet instead of 90 and are used primarily to teach the proper fundamentals of sliding. On Thursday, it was the site of a hitting contest for youngsters between the ages of 9 and 12 while the older kids were having their own competition inside in the cages. This was all part of one of the five week-long clinics being held at the academy this summer. The next one is scheduled for the week of July 28, followed by clinics the weeks of Aug. 4 and 11. Each runs Monday through Thursday from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Softball clinics are also on tap for the weeks of July 7, 14 and 21, as well as August 11. The clinics are for girls, who wish to learn or improve their softball hitting, fielding and pitching skills. The Director is former Case High and Temple University standout Nanci Lima-Caron. The baseball clinics feature several other instructors such as former Durfee slugger and current assistant coach at Dighton-Rehoboth Regional, Greg Homen, Jim Howland (a veteran coach for the Dighton-Rehoboth Babe Ruth and AAU programs), Josh Pimental (coaching at Coyle Cassidy High), Peter Freire and Mike Diogo, Jay Amorin (former Case star who plays at Rhode Island College) and RIC pitching coach Andy Crisafulli. Skeffington is also the coach for the Nokona Select Under Class team which will be participating in several showcase and wooden bat tournaments this summer, mainly in New York and Connecticut. The bulk of the students are youngsters. Skeffington believes the older players will begin using the cages during the off season. “Right now we’re not getting the high school-age players because they’re either involved in their American Legion or AAU seasons, but we hope to have them here next winter along with college guys.” Private lessons are available and those should be common during the winter months. If players want to bring their own bats, that’s fine. Those who wish to work with wooden bats should be happy to learn that Nokona makes them available. Skeffington said there is no age limit. Anyone who wants to learn the basics or just refine what they already know are welcome. There are plans to offer free clinics to area Little Leagues, as well as other youth organizations such as the Boys & Girls Clubs. “We’re really excited about the potential that we have here,” said Skeffington. “The kids are great. They want to learn and that’s why we’re here.” Back