Former Classical star McGrath is getting his spikes on

He burst on the local athletic scene when he was a sophomore in high school – thrown into a huge local football game because the guy ahead of him on the depth chart managed to get suspended.He performed admirably in that game, and even though his team lost in a most heartbreaking manner, Eric McGrath could hold his head high. In fact, that night turned out to be the coming-out party for one of the city’s most gifted – and popular – high school athletes of the decade. McGrath played every down for Lynn Classical from that point on, and doubled as a pitcher/first baseman/outfielder on the baseball team. In his final game, in Andover, he ran practically the equivalent of the two-mile-run chasing fly balls in the spacious outfield.These days, McGrath is playing football and baseball for Trinity College in Hartford, Conn – again, with positive results.The Bantams were 6-2 this past fall, but McGrath wasn’t around to see the end of the season. He broke his hand in the first quarter of the seventh game, and had to shut it down.Overall, he says, the season went well.”We lost a couple of tough games,” he said. “It was a weird season. I started off real hot for four weeks. Things were going really well.”The two games we lost, I, unfortunately, didn’t play as well as I’m capable of playing. I singlehandedly didn’t lose the games, but didn’t make enough plays to win.”What made it tougher for him was one of those games was at Tufts, and “a lot of people from home were there. And I laid an egg. But it makes you better in the long run. I’m certainly excited for next season.”McGrath, a junior, is anxious to get started on baseball for a number of reasons. First, he feels he had a subpar year on the mound in 2006 – at least for him.”I struggled a little last year with baseball,” he said. “I was the No. 2 starter to start the year, but I had trouble finding the strike zone. I didn’t have as much success as I’d have liked.”I know I have good enough stuff to get people out,” he said. “I had some solid outings. But I also had a few games where I really didn’t have it.”A lot of the problem, he said, was due to location.”If you fall behind guys, you get ripped around,” he said. “I really don’t know why that happened. I think it was just that I was struggling with mechanics. I don’t think my mechanics were right.”I was leaving myself open, my arm was behind, and I was missing high in the zone,” he said. “That’s what usually happens with me.”Team-wise, though, the Bantams were one of the top teams in Division 3. And they should be better this season, McGrath feels, with him – hopefully – back in from as well as Swampscott’s Tim Kiely.”He should be one of the top Division 3 pitchers in the country,” McGrath says.He played a lot of ball last summer, though, some of it with the Swampscott Sox of the North Shore Baseball League.”I think,” he said, “I got it straightened out a little last summer.”And what about this summer? Would he be interested in the playing for the fledgling North Shore Navigators of the New England Collegiate Baseball League?”It’s hard to really answer that question,” he said. “I haven’t been approached by anyone. I’ve heard that there’s interest, but until I’m actually approached, I can’t really say.”But would I be interested if someone asked me? Absolutely,” he said.In the meantime, he’s taking it slow, not only because he feels instinctively he needs to heal from the broken hand, but because his coaches have told him to.”I’m just starting now to get back into it,” he says. “I didn’t’ want to rush it, plus coach told me to take it slow.”McGrath and a few of his teammates are headed for Florida this week to start training.On the home front, McGrath said he was happy to see that his alma mater had a good football season, but was chagrined to see that the Rams lost – yet again – to Gloucester in heartbreaking fashion – just like they did in his first-ever start.”They just have to get over the hump once (and win one of those close games