After repealing the two-year open tournament experiment, the Maine Principals Association has rolled out the welcome mat to the top two-thirds of Maine’s high school baseball teams this year.
Upon yesterday’s release of the final Heal Point Standings, teams across the state began mapping their way to Bangor or Gorham for the state championship game. All but the No. 1 seeds are counting on at least one upset along the way.
If last year is any indication, some of those upset-minded teams will get their wish. Last season, the regionalized format meant there were 14 teams designated top seeds in the playoffs (Class D had one No. 1 seed each in Western and Eastern Maine). Of those 14, only three — Sanford in Class A, Maranacook in Class B and George Stevens Academy in Class C — made it to the state championship game.
So what’s a seeding worth? The No. 1 seeds are guaranteed home field advantage through the playoffs until the regional finals, which Eastern Maine will play at its traditional site in Bangor and Western Maine will play at a new destination, Gorham High School. The top five teams earned a bye to the quarterfinals in each class except Eastern A, which awards a bye to the top three, and Western D, where the top seed is assured a semifinal game and everyone else proceeds directly to the quarters.
Oxford Hills just made the cut for a bye in Eastern A, finishing third behind top-seeded Bangor and No. 2 Cony. First-year Vikings’ coach Shane Slicer, whose team resided in one of the top two spots for much of the season, sees advantages and disadvantages to his team’s positioning.
“I was disappointed to drop to number three, because you usually draw a better bracket (in the top two spots),” he said. “It’d be nice to have home field if we play Cony in the semifinals. That’s a tough place to play. But we still got the bye, and we get to play against against the winner of a matchup between two teams we’ve played against and beat.”
By finishing third, the defending Eastern Maine champions will face the winner of the No. 6 Mt. Blue vs. No. 11 Lawrence game. If they had finished second, they would have faced the winner of the 7 vs. 10 matchup, which involves two teams Oxford Hills hasn’t faced, Presque Isle and Brewer.
Leavitt beat out Waterville for the 13th and final spot in Eastern Maine. The Hornets will face No. 4 Mt. Ararat in the preliminary round, which will be played Tuesday. The winner of that game faces the Hampden-Skowhegan winner.
In Western Class B, Gorham earned the top seed with a 14-2 record, while Oak Hill checked in at No. 2. Greely earned the third seed, and MVC rivals Lisbon and Mountain Valley drew the fourth and fifth spots, respectively, meaning they’ll meet in the quarterfinals next Thursday in Lisbon Falls.
Maranacook drew the ninth seed and will travel to Yarmouth to face the Clippers in the preliminaries. Gray-New Gloucester, which finished the season strongly, finished seventh and will host No. 10 Wiscasset in the preliminaries. A G-NG win would set up a rematch of last year’s exciting semifinal with Oak Hill, which the Patriots won 3-1 on a pair of home runs that Oak Hill coach Bill Fairchild feels probably would have been fly outs had the game been in Wales rather than the more confining Gray-NG field.
“We don’t really have a preference,” said Fairchild. “I’m sure that both teams would give us a contest, but I know the kids would love to play at our ballpark, and I would love to have Gray on our ball field.”
In Western C, St. Dom’s retained the top spot that it held for much of the year and will host the winner of the prelim matchup between Hall-Dale and Winthrop. The Saints are one of only two Western Maine Conference teams to reach the post-season in Class C. The Mountain Valley Conference dominates the field with eight teams.
The Saints went 14-2 boast one of the deepest pitching staffs in Class C, posting a 1.17 ERA during the regular season. St. Dom’s outscored opponents 145-45 this season, but coach Allan Turgeon thinks the Saints have their best baseball ahead of them.
“I don’t think we’ve hit our full stride yet,” Turgeon said. “I think there’s more offense there, and I think you’re going to see our hitting improve a little bit more as we get deeper into the playoffs.”
Defending state champion Jay claimed the No. 2 seed and will host the winner of the Georges Valley/Freeport prelim. No. 3 Telstar awaits the winner of the Boothbay/Livermore Falls contest, while No. 4 Monmouth will host MVC rival No. 5 Dirigo in the quarterfinals.
Both of St. Dominic’s losses came at the hands of the top seed in Western D, undefeated North Yarmouth Academy, the defending state champs, which earned a bye to the semifinals. The Panthers also victimized No. 2 Buckfield for its only two losses of the season. The Bucks host No. 7 Waynflete in the quarterfinals Thursday. The winner of that game will meet the winner of Valley/Richmond in the semifinals.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
