Joe Mayo has been a mainstay for four seasons behind the plaate for the Souhegan High School baseball team. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

AMHERST – Souhegan High School baseball coach Chris Metz three years ago in December saw Joe Mayo catch during an indoor workout and knew immediately.

“I looked at one of my assistant coaches who isn’t here any more, he was a freshman, and I said, ‘Hey man, there’s our starting catcher,'” Metz said.

And Joe Mayo, now a senior, has been the Sabers startting catcher for four seasons, and has made such an impression on his coach that Metz admits it simply won’t be the same without him.

“I don’t want this season to end,” he said, “because I want to stay with him.”

For any high school team, that’s a luxury. Now, as proof that every year different in high school sports, Mayo,who has seen three senior classes lead the program, finally has his turn. This is his team now, and he’ll be looking to help them win a key Division II game today when they host the red hot Hollis Brookline Cavaliers today at Bill Dod Field.

“Yeah,” he says with a grin. “It’s my just like it is every one of their teams. It all comes down to the team aspect where you can pick your guys up. And I just feel that I’ll lead by example and the the best I can be day-in, day-out.”

Mayo’s been playing the game of baseball for a while now. As early as he can remember, he was out in the back yard playing. But he really fell in love with the game visiting his grandparents on Cape Cod (Eastham) and going to Cape League games growing up, “and falling in love with it at an early age.”

It’s been the perfect situation for Mayo, a student of the game who will probably miss the Metz and the Sabers after this spring as much as they’ll miss him.

“I’ve been very lucky,” he said. “I love the game, first of all. I love coming out to the field. All my best buddies play. There’s never a dull moment out here. I just love spending time with the guys, and just love playing.”

How did he become a catcher? He played third and first in Little League “and we kind of just needed a catcher, so I threw on the gear and worked back there. I feel it’s worked out pretty well.”

He loves it.

“I do, I do,” he said with a grin. “I like to control the game, just build a relationship with the pitchers.”

Mayo says it helps with his hitting, seeing pitch after pitch and also what the umpire’s strike zone is.

“Seeing all these pitches, and I get the first look at (the ump’s zone),” he said. “I come in, relay that to the guys, and hopefully that helps them out.”

It was the beginning of last season that Mayo, as a junior, felt comfortable in where his baseball career was heading.

“I really found who I was as a player, I played to my strengths,” he said. “And I just utilized the off-season well, and just really took advantage of every opportunity that I got. I’ve been really gifted with a ton of tools and worke with a ton of great guys. I feel just using that to my advantage has been big.”

Mayo has utilized the big batting cage next to Dod Field at Souhegan, “and see a ton of pitches. Felt comfortable all preseason and it’s been able to translate (into the regular season).

Mayo is an athlete. He’s been a member of Souhegan championship golf teams, plays basketball for the Sabers in the winter, and plays summer ball for the AAU New England Roughnecks. He was recruited to go next year to play at Johnson&Wales in Providence, R.I.

“I love the spot,” he said. “I’m a big city guy, and Providence is great, a good mix of everything.”

And now the Sabers at 5-3 enter today’s huge local test BACKvying for their third straight Division II finals appearance and second straight state title.

“Obviously the expectations are through the roof,” Mayo said. “We know we’ve been there.I feel we’ve really came together as a group this year, whether it’s be hitting, coming early for practice, staying late, just hanging out with each other outside the field. I feel like that’s made a big impact.”

Mayo is close to Metz, as the two are always on the same page.

“We’re very, very close, Metz said. “He’s very close to my family. Great kid, great family, he’s just a good, good kid.”

And one heckuva baseball player.

“He just wants it,” Metz said. “He’s a gamer, he’s a ballplayer, he just wants it all the time. He’s always out here in this cage. He’s always working on his framing. He’s working on hitting. He’s a gym rat, you know?

“They’re always in that cage hitting. He’s there all day on the weekends, everything. You’ve got to pull them (Mayo and teammates) out of there and say,’Hey, go home.'”

As much as Metz hates doing it, because he knows in a couple of months Joe Mayo will go home and not return except to visit. An era will end, but it’s been one to remember.