Spruce Mountain’s Jordy Daigle. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

Spruce Mountain’s Jordy Daigle throws to first during warmups before a recent game where he was playing 3rd base. (Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal)

LIVERMORE FALLS — Like many of his spring sports peers, Spruce Mountain senior Jordy Daigle is balancing enjoying his last days of high school with preparing for his future.

“It’s been a lot on my mind, for sure,” he said. “It’s tough to balance planning the next four years of your life and, at the same time, I still want to finish baseball strong.”

What separates Daigle from most of his peers is planning for his future involves choosing between a pair of Ivy League schools — Harvard and Columbia.

Daigle plans to study chemical engineering. Following recent visits to both campuses, he is leaning heavily to the Crimson, but hasn’t made his decision official.

Having missed a couple of practices for those visits, he’s glad to be back in the swing of things with the Phoenix. But even though he has some pretty big plans for his final season, he’s in no rush to take his final diamond exams.

“We’re definitely looking to make a deep playoff run, but I don’t think we’re entirely focused on getting to the playoffs right now,” he said. “We’ve got to get some regular season wins and get out some of those early-season jitters and everything that comes along with spring baseball in Maine.”

Daigle has spent the last four springs with Spruce Mountain’s varsity. Last year, he emerged as the Phoenix’s ace — and was named the MVP of a senior-laden team — after posting a microscopic 0.92 ERA and walking just three batters all season, including playoffs.

Command of the strike zone is one thing, but disrupting the hitter’s timing is the essence of pitching. Daigle has the baseball IQ and experience to recognize he needed to do more of that this season.

“I’ve tried to incorporate new pitches this year,” he said. “I worked on some off-speed stuff. I’ve usually been a two pitch guy, so I’m just trying to change speeds a little more often.”

Daigle plays third base when he’s not pitching and has moved up from the lower part of the batting order to the No. 2 spot in a lineup that uses its speed to manufacture runs.

Batting in the two-hole in that kind of offense often means sacrificing yourself to move runners up. Spruce Mountain coach Brian Dube thinks he has the perfect player for the job. 

“He does all of the little things right,” Dube said. “Overall, he’s pretty quiet. He goes about his business and leads by example.”

A member of Spruce Mountain’s state championship Envirothon team, Daigle hopes to ultimately pursue a career in renewable energy.

“It’s a growing area,” he said. “The intersection of chemistry and engineering is a great area to be in. Technology is increasing at such a rapid rate and global warming is becoming more of an issue. That’s the future, I think.”

As he nears his college decision, Daigle is pondering a more immediate future where he is expanding his horizons.

“I love small town Maine. It’s sort of who I am,” he said. “But at the same time, there are just so many more opportunities (in the world). It’s something I’ve worked toward and this is a good time in your life to try new things. Why not branch out and meet some new people?”