By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

Being a top seed in the Maine high school baseball tournament isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Earning the No. 1 ranking doesn’t guarantee a free pass to the regional finals in any year, most especially this one. Just look at Eastern Class A, where lower-ranked teams like Lewiston have been knocking off higher-seeded ones like Oxford Hills all year long.

The final Heal Point standings released Friday are certainly an accurate gauge of how teams performed during the regular season, but they’re definitely not a crystal ball into how the post-season will unfold.

Gardiner coach Jim Palmer doesn’t think his team gained any favors by earning the No. 1 seed. The Tigers await either No. 9 Brewer, which upset second-seeded Oxford Hills last year, or Hampden Academy, a team Palmer thinks could be very dangerous.

“I think the No. 1 seed’s got the toughest (draw) just because Hampden’s really hot and they’ve got two good pitchers,” said Palmer. “There really isn’t any benefit to being No. 1 this year.”

Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer, whose team once again is the No. 2 seed, isn’t feeling sorry for Palmer, but he also likes his team’s draw. He’d rather face a known than an unknown in next Thursday’s quarterfinals. The Vikings will meet the winner of the prelim between No. 7 Mt. Blue and No. 10 Skowhegan.

So maybe being a high seed doesn’t ensure any easy outs, but at least it gives teams time to regroup and rest up for the playoff grind.

“It’s nice to have a little break right now to go and take care of some of the problems we’ve had,” said Slicer, whose team made four errors in a 7-0 loss to Gardiner in Friday’s KVAC championship. “It’s also nice being able to play a couple of games at home. We play a lot better at home.”

No. 3 Mt. Ararat, the defending Eastern A champion, drew the other first-round bye. The prelim matchups to be played Tuesday include another Battle of the Bridge between No. 12 Lewiston and No. 5 Edward Little. The Red Eddies beat the Blue Devils, 10-1, back on May 3.

In Class B, Poland parlayed the best record in school history into a No. 2 seed and a first-round bye. The Knights (15-1), who have won 12 in a row, will face the winner of the 7-10 tilt between Wells and Falmouth.

“We’re excited about going into the playoffs with a lot of momentum,” said Poland coach Dave Jordan. “We just go out there and get the job done.”

Unbeaten Gorham, the only team to defeat the Knights, earned the top seed and will draw the winner of Tuesday’s prelim between No. 9 Oak Hill and No. 8 Lincoln Academy. Mountain Valley, which won the Mountain Valley Conference championship yesterday, is the No. 3 seed and awaits the winner of the prelim between No. 11 Fryeburg Academy and No. 6 Greely. One quarterfinal match-up is set, between No. 4 Cape Elizabeth and No. 5 Maranacook.

Despite suffering its first loss of the season at the hands of Poland earlier this week, St. Dom’s crept up on Monmouth to take the top seed in Western C. The defending regional champions will have had a 10-day layoff when they face the winner of the Wiscasset-Mt. Abram prelim next Thursday.

The Saints are perennially among the higher seeds, so the time off isn’t anything new to them. Still, they’ll take different measures to stay sharp.

“We’ve called some Class B teams about scrimmaging, and the other thing we do is we bring up some JV kids so we’ve got 18 guys so we can do some live scrimmages and have our pitchers on pitch counts,” said coach Bob Blackman.

Monmouth, Telstar and Winthrop also picked up first-round byes. The Mustangs will meet the winner of Tuesday’s prelim between No. 10 Lisbon and No. 7 Livermore Falls. The Rebels await either No. 11 Hall-Dale or No. 6 Old Orchard. The Ramblers will draw the winner of the No. 12 Madison vs. No. 5 Jay prelim.

The top Class D seeds, No. 1 Richmond and No. 2 Buckfield, face an even longer wait than their counterparts in the three higher classes. They won’t play until a week from today. The Bucks will meet the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal between No. 6 Valley and No. 3 North Yarmouth Academy.