LEWISTON — All of a sudden, Lewiston is a baseball town again.
One day after watching the Lewiston-based American Legion team — sponsored by Gayton Post 31 of Auburn — earn a win in its first trip to a regional tournament in more than 70 years, a younger set of players will travel a quarter of the distance and hope for the same level of success.
Lewiston’s entry in the 2010 Maine State Junior American Legion baseball state tournament last week plowed through this competition and earned for the area a second state championship and the right to travel this weekend to Gill Stadium in Manchester, N.H., for the Northeast regional tournament.
“The program has been growing since (senior Legion coach and Lewiston High School baseball coach Todd) Cifelli took it over,” Junior Legion coach Matt Blais said. “Winning is contagious. You look at how Lewiston hockey has built itself up over the years, and there’s no reason we can’t try and build up Lewiston baseball into a perennial power, too.”
Unlike the senior Legion players, junior Legion is a parent-funded program, making the team’s accomplishments this season that much more incredible.
“The only thing we get paid is the entry fee into the regional tournament,” Blais said. “But that’s fine, we’re all right with that.”
As for the tournament itself, now that the dust has settled from the marathon final against Westbrook on Monday, the Lewiston squad is confident that, with its pitching depth, this shorter tourney (three days and three possible games) sets up well.
“I like our chances, given our pitching,” Blais said. “We have a couple of guys up in the top of the rotation that are going to go right away for us, and if we have to use our four and five guys like we did in the final, we’re fine with that, too.”
Blais said he just hopes the team’s bats wake up, too.
“We’ve gone through some spurts this year where we’ve hit really well, and then hit a slump,” Blais said. “We were on fire before the tournament last week, and then went cold again, and we got by on our pitching. If we can get the bats going again, we’re going to be hard to beat.”
Lewiston opens the tournament with a 2 p.m. contest against Westbrook, Conn., and will play again Saturday, win or lose. The tournament is single elimination, with a consolation game in place for the teams losing on Day 1.
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