With every win, the Poland Knights are entering uncharted territory.
But coach Dave Jordan had a feeling that his team would be meeting Western Maine Conference nemesis Gorham again.
“You had to know that to knock Gorham off, somebody has to play a very sound game all the way through,” he said.
That includes the second-seeded Knights (17-1), who will meet No. 1 Gorham (18-0) for the Western Maine Class B championship at 3 p.m. today at Mahaney Diamond on the campus of St. Joseph’s College.
As one might be able to deduce from the records, the Rams handed the Knights their only loss this season, a 5-4 nail-biter in eight innings back on April 30. Gorham overcame leads of 3-1 and 4-3 to pick up the victory on a Craig Nicely double.
“They either jump on you early or in the sixth inning,” Jordan said. “They got to us in the sixth inning, and they pulled away from Cape a couple of times in the sixth.”
Gorham regularly gets the jump on the competition with a strong lineup led by all-WMC selections Chris Donaldson (.535), Jake Blaisdell (.426) and Ben Thayer (.473).
“They have some pretty potent guys,” Jordan said, “but I still think they’re best hitter is Mark Schmidt. Boy, can he crush the ball?”
Schmidt is indisputably the Rams’ best pitcher. The southpaw is 9-0, with a 0.54 ERA and one of the state’s best pickoff moves.
Poland will answer Schmidt with an all-conference ace of its own, Alex Smith, who is 6-0 with a 0.58 ERA despite battling some back problems early in the season.
Offensively, the Knights are one of the most adept teams around at playing small ball. They’ll sacrifice and squeeze in any situation. Seniors Max Levine (.351) and Jeremy Callahan (.347) led the club in hitting this year, but Jordan counts on contributions from the entire lineup.
“I joke with the kids that we pack like a good cross country team,” he said. “We really don’t have one guy that stands out.”
“The last two playoff games, we’ve hit the ball real well, but they’ve been balls that people have gotten to,” he added. “My hope is that the baseball gods will let a few of those fall in.”
Both teams will probably have to create their own breaks, because neither club has shown a penchant for beating themselves, Jordan said.
“We’ve had great senior leadership that stepped it up all year long,” he said. “I feel pretty confident that we’re going to play the best we can (today), and if Gorham beats us, it’s going to be because they played a heck of a game.”
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