Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer looked at the Eastern Class A baseball playoff brackets and saw a wild card.
“Mt. Ararat is going to win if Mark Rogers is one the mound,” said Slicer, whose team was one-hit by the Mt. Ararat junior in the KVAC playoffs. “So it depends on if they can play without him on the mound. If they go deep, we’re all in trouble. I think it’s that wide open.”
Rogers, a dominant right-hander who’s been clocked with a 94-miles-per-hour fastball, pitched in Mt. Ararat’s preliminary win over Leavitt Tuesday, so Skowhegan won’t have to worry about him. Neither will anyone else if the Indians can get by the Eagles when the quarterfinals continue today.
Slicer’s third-seeded Vikings (14-2) won’t have to worry about Mt. Ararat or Rogers until the Eastern A finals, if both teams get that far. In fact, as Slicer is quick to point out, Oxford Hills would be best served not looking past today’s opponent, No. 11 Lawrence (8-9).
“They’re fundamentally sound,” Slicer said. “Peter McLaughlin, their catcher, is an outstanding player.”
Slicer has a coach’s dilemma a lot of skippers wouldn’t mind having to face this time of year – which pitcher to start. Staff ace Garrett Olson and No. 2 starter Joe Baker are both 5-1, while No. 3 Cory Tielinen (3-0) has come on late in the season and has a no-hitter under his belt.
“Our luxury is that we start three good pitchers and our No. 2 has pitched like our No. 1,” Slicer said. “But we’re a better defensive team with Olson in the field.”
Another team with the luxury of a deep pitching staff is second-seeded Oak Hill (13-3), which will host No. 7 Gray-New Gloucester (11-6) in the Western B quarterfinals, a rematch of an exciting pitchers duel from last year’s semifinals that the Patriots won.
Raiders coach Bill Fairchild can choose from senior Mike Daggett, junior Rick Leavitt or junior lefty Pat Duchette to toe the rubber today. He won’t sweat that selection because he has a bigger concern – whether his team will be able to scratch out some runs against a Patriot club that has been surging since getting off to a slow start.
“We seem to be a bit in the doldrums hitting right now,” Fairchild said. “I don’t think we’ve come close to peaking. Anytime we get a few runs, I think we’re tough to beat because we’re going to pitch well.”
Another Class B quarterfinal pits MVC rivals Lisbon (11-3) and Mountain Valley (10-4). The fourth-seeded Greyhounds may just have earned the right to host the game by pulling off a dramatic comeback win over the fifth-seeded Falcons during the regular season.
“They were up 5-1 going into the sixth inning and we scored two in the bottom of the sixth and then three in the bottom of the seventh,” said Lisbon coach Randy Ridley. “The winning run scored on a hit batsmen with the bases loaded.
“They’ll definitely be ready to play,” he added. “I know they think a win slipped through their grasps in that game.”
Both teams rely on pitching, defense and sound fundamental play to win games. Don’t expect a slugfest in Lisbon Falls.
“They’re a lot like us. They nickel and dime you to death,” Mountain Valley coach Steve LaPointe said.
MVC teams dominate the Class C bracket. No. 9 Winthrop (7-8) will try to knock off top-seeded St. Dom’s (14-2), while No. 10 Georges Valley (7-8) will try to do same with defending state champion Jay (11-5), the second seed.
Like most MVC teams, Jay has struggled to put together the big inning this year. The Tigers hit .282 as a team and hit the ball well in an exhibition game with Buckfield earlier this week, so coach Chris Bessey hopes his Tigers are ready to manufacture their own offense without expecting mistakes from the lower-seeded Buccaneers to aid them.
“Their infield is probably one of the best in the league defensively,” he said. “The two games we’ve seen them, they’ve looked pretty solid.”
The most intriguing matchup involves No. 11 Boothbay (6-9) and No. 3 Telstar (10-4). Boothbay coach Bill Arsenault elected to start Max Arsenault against higher-seeded Livermore Falls and save ace Will Carroll for Telstar.
The gamble paid off, as Arsenault spun a gem and Carroll is now rested and ready to face perhaps the hottest offensive team in Class C in Telstar, which may have to counter with its ace, southpaw Wade Osgood.
Western Class D playoff action finally gets underway today, too, as No. 2 Buckfield (14-2) hosts No. 7 Waynflete (7-8). The Bucks are led by the East/West Conference’s top player, Steve Abbott, and Scott Wetherell.
rwhitehouse@sunjournal.com
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