The talk across central Maine during the American Legion season has centered on the depth found from top to bottom in the newly formed 12-team Zone 2.
The Zone 2 tournament only amplified those talks. Top-seeded Bessey Motors brushed aside a three-game losing streak to win four straight and capture the tournament title.
Tri-Town — the seventh seed — showcased the zone’s parity, eliminating No. 2 Franklin County, No. 3 Pastime and No. 5 Augusta en route to its first trip to the state tournament as a senior legion program. Tri-Town fended off elimination on back-to-back days to extend its season for at least another two games.
Now, after more than a month of beating on one another during the regular season, the last two teams standing in Zone 2 will get to see how they stack up against the best the other three zones have to offer. Bessey Motors will play Zone 1 runner-up Bangor in a rematch of last year’s championship, and Tri-Town draws Zone 1 champion Post 51 (Messalonskee) in their respective opening-round games in the double-elimination tournament.
Playing in the state tournament is nothing new for Bessey Motors, which finished one game shy of claiming the title last year. Bessey Motors lost to Bangor in a winner-take-all championship after forcing the decisive game by handing the defending state champion its first loss of the year.
“I expect to see good baseball and we’re going to have to do the little things,” Bessey Motors’ post-grad Riley Chickering said. “If we can do the little things — execute when we have runners in scoring position, play great defense — I think we have a good chance.”
Bessey Motors (19-3) brings back plenty of experience to the state tournament in the form of five post-grads. Chickering, who was named the Zone 2 most valuable player, is among them. Chickering finished the tournament 4-for-9 with a home run and four runs scored. He pitched a complete-game shutout in Bessey Motors’ first tournament meeting with Tri-Town.
Chickering, along with the rest of Bessey Motors’ lineup, has experience when it comes to big games.
“We have a lot of young guys, but at the same time we have five post-grads that have been there as high school athletes,” Bessey Motors coach Shane Slicer said. “They won the KVAC championship. We played in an Eastern Maine championship. We played for a state title last year. Their record is impeccable over the last two years. We were 15-0 this year. I think we were 16-0 last year and in both cases we had wrapped up the regular season, so not counting those last few games, very good record.”
Bessey Motors has proven over the course of the year that it can win in a variety of ways. Sometimes it’s with the bat like in its most recent game against Tri-Town in which it recorded 12 runs on 13 hits in a 12-2 victory in eight innings.
The Zone 2 champions have also shown it can come back late in games like it did against Augusta in a state qualifier. Bessey Motors trailed 2-0 heading into the sixth before plating three runs over the next two innings before eventually walking off on a wild pitch in the ninth. That wasn’t the first time Bessey Motors’ has come from behind this season. It did the same thing to Franklin County during the regular season, tying the game with two runs in the seventh before winning in the ninth.
Other times Bessey Motors has had to win ugly. It played no uglier game than against Highland Green in the first round of the playoffs when it committed nine errors. It didn’t hurt Bessey Motors that time — winning 14-7 — but Slicer said his team will have to play better defensively if it wants to play deep into the tournament.
“We have to defend a little better,” Slicer said. “We’re going to face a lot better pitching. We have to get through the first two days without using the whole staff and get a win. That Game 1 win really sets the tone, gets you in the winner’s bracket. You don’t have to play as many games. That’s very important. If we can do that, we’ve got a chance. We just have to play one game at a time. You can’t look forward.”
While Chickering is the ace, posting an 8-0 record, Bessey Motors’ pitching staff doesn’t stop at the University of Maine at Farmington ball player. Blake Slicer and Bailey West both recorded complete-game wins during the tournament.
Tri-Town not a Cinderella, just underrated
Tri-Town’s endured an up-and-down season to say the least.
It began with a 7-3 start that saw Tri-Town sit as high as fourth in the Zone 2 standings before falling down to Earth by losing five of its next six games before being rewarded two forfeit wins over Andy Valley to end the season.
The final regular season standings said Tri-Town it was the seventh-best team in the zone. Tri-Town didn’t care what the standings said when it eliminated No. 2 Franklin County in the first round of the playoffs. Tri-Town didn’t care what the standings said when it blasted No. 3 Pastime, 11-1, to advance to a state qualifier. And Tri-Town didn’t care what the standings said when it held off No. 5 Augusta, 7-6, to earn a spot in the state tournament.
The final regular season standings may have said Tri-Town was the seventh-best team in the zone, but five of the six teams that finished ahead of it aren’t playing in the state tournament like it will this week.
“We’ve been looked at it as we’re No. 7,” Tri-Town post-grad Kaleb Bridgham said. “We’ve been looked at it as some kids that are washed up, but really we’re still grinding. We’re still boys who just want it as bad as everyone else here.”
Tri-Town (12-10) offense is as deadly as any team in the state tournament when it’s on. The Zone 2 runner-up compiled 18 runs on 31 hits in a pair of elimination games. Eight of those hits went for extra bases.
Bridgham is part of that offensive attack. He was named the Zone 2 player of the week in early July after completing a stretch where he hit .533 with two home runs.
Tri-Town’s home run power became clear early in the season when it crushed three homers in an 11-3 victory over Smith Tobey. Billy Bickford, Lukas Johnson and Shawn Murphy went yard that game. Tri-Town one-upped that performance with a four home-run game against Highland Green. Bridgham crushed two homers and Johnson and Brandon Hubbard each hit one.
As a senior American Legion program, Tri-Town is inexperienced when it comes to the bright lights of the state tournament, but that doesn’t mean the team’s core hasn’t played in big games before. Several players on this year’s team were part of a Cal Ripken team that won three straight state championships from 2010-12.
“It’s a lot of adversity to come from where no one looks at us as we’re a successful group of players, but our group has had so much success in our lives,” Bridgham said.
Tri-Town knows it will take performances like the ones against Augusta and Pastime to advance deep in the tournament. That will require all hands on deck with everyone contributing.
“We had a season where we had a lot of ups and downs,” Bridgham said. “Somedays one of us would bring it and other days the whole team would bring it and coming into the playoffs it’s a very situational moment. It’s not just baseball. It’s fazing everything out and in the moment trying to be successful, every single one of us.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
