There will be several changes apparent during this year’s Zone II American Legion baseball season, but a new champion is unlikely to be one of them.

The zone welcomes two new teams to the fold this season, a transplant from Zone I (Sebasticook) and an upstart (O’Brien Oil, Post 163), which forced officials to realign the zone into two divisions, North and South.

Playing in the South division will be Augusta, Fairfield (formerly Oakland), Gardiner, Lincoln County and heavily-favored Monmouth.

Monmouth, drawing its players from Monmouth High School and from Oak Hill High School, may well be one of the best teams in the entire state. Oak Hill will contribute eight players from its newly-crowned Class B state championship team, including Mike Daggett, Adam

Labbe and Pat Duchette. Monmouth, fresh off a successful season during which it fell to No. 1 seed St. Dom’s in the playoffs, will also add several key players.

Add three players returning from college and the team looks downright scary.

Chasing Monmouth will be no easy task. Gardiner, bolstered by the addition of Hall-Dale players this season, should again be in the running, while Augusta, a perennial contender, should also do well. The Cony team from which they draw recently bowed out of the playoffs, losing to Oxford Hills in the Eastern semifinals.

Rounding out the field in the South division will be Lincoln County and Fairfield. Both teams have bright spots and strong No. 1 pitching. Finding depth and offense will be the key for these two teams trying to break through.

The North Division, consisting of Franklin County, Madison, O’Brien Oil, Sebasticook and Waterville will be the weaker of the two divisions this year. Three of the teams in the division had losing records last year, one didn’t exist and the other played in Zone I. Still, the competition will be fierce for the automatic playoff bids to be awarded.

Madison, Franklin County and O’Brien Oil, which draws from the Winslow area, should be the top three contenders in the North division. Waterville has the potential to break through, but will have to rely on an inexperienced team. Sebasticook may surprise people, but it will have to adjust to Zone II life in a hurry.

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