Click here for the latest coronavirus news, which the BDN has made free for the public. You can support this mission by purchasing a digital subscription. The crisp connection between bat and ball was one of the chief selling points for a Shirley company as it returned to spring training sites in Florida and Arizona to market its bats to major-league and minor-league baseball players. By all accounts, Dove Tail Bats was having its share of success as one of approximately 35 bat makers certified by Major League Baseball. [Our COVID-19 tracker contains the most recent information on Maine cases by county] “We got pounded with orders at spring training,” said Paul Lancisi who, with his wife Theresa, owns the 10-year-old business located along Route 15 south of Greenville. Much of that sales-oriented momentum stemmed from the company’s most prominent slugger in 2019, New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso. Alonso won the annual Home Run Derby during the All-Star Break and went on to be named National League Rookie of the Year after hitting an MLB rookie-record 53 home runs. “The bump was enormous because of what he did and also because of [fellow Mets’ All-Star] Jeff McNeil [who also swings Dove Tail Bats],” Lancisi said.