If you talk to six of the seven coaches in Zone III American Legion baseball, there is one team that tops, or shares the top, of their list of favorites to win the zone this summer.
Of course, if you talk to the coach of that team, he says the zone is wide open.
Go figure.
“I honestly think you need to watch out for every team in this zone,” said New Auburn coach Jeff Benson. “I think it’s wide open. It’s not as cut and dry as some people want to make it out to be.”
Smith-Tobey coach Bob Neron spoke for the majority, though.
“They have depth in pitching, real depth in hitting and they are well coached,” said Neron. “I see them as the team to beat. This is my seventh year involved with legion baseball, and New Auburn has sent us home plenty of times.”
The Smith-Tobey coach has a luxury no other American Legion team in the state has, though: Three Class A schools from which to draw. This summer, Neron’s team is stacked with the Nos. 1 and 2 pitchers from Morse, Mt. Ararat and Brunswick high schools, as well as Mt. Ararat’s No. 3.
“That’s a luxury I’d like to have,” said Benson.
“We have a school with 600 kids, and they get to draw from three Class A schools,” said Gray coach Aaron Talon. “It’s not a complaint, it’s just something we have to work around. To me, though, New Auburn is still the team to beat.”
New Auburn, meanwhile, might have the most feared battling lineup in the zone, and also boasts top pitchers Brady Blackman of St. Dom’s and Derek Doucette of Edward Little. At the plate, New Auburn’s lineup includes hitters Justin Ciszewski, David Lutz (who transferred back from Gilman Electric this season), Tyler Dorris and Tyler Snowe, among others.
Despite the apparent depth for both teams, they are both part of an overall trend of youth across the zone.
“I agree that there’s youth all over this season,” said Benson. “We have seven 16-year-olds ourselves. Last year we only had three 15s and three 16s. I made seven wholesale changes in the fifth inning in our first game of the year. We have to find out if these young kids are ready to go to the next level. Ultimately, that’s what we want to do for all of the players, get them ready.”
Gray is perhaps the epitome of youth within the zone, though, with five freshmen from this past season on the roster.
“It’s a young zone,” said Talon. “They’re young, but from what I’ve seen, they can all play the game.”
Gayton Post, which draws from Lewiston, Lisbon and part of St. Dom’s, will also be fairly young, but with a few top pitchers, including Lewiston ace Luke Potter and former Lewiston ace Nick Langlas, should be in almost every game provided it can remain steady in the field.
“Hitting, we’re going to be fine,” said Cifelli. “We take batting practice all the time, but we just have to be able to catch the ball.”
Bessey Motors lost a lot of its talent from last season, and has had a rougher-than-normal start to this one, but they will not be an easy game for anyone his season. NAMES lead their charge.
Gilman Electric, formerly Mechanic Falls, has plenty of talent returning to mix in with the youth movement it has also experienced. A solid start to this season bodes well for this team, which now also draws layers from Lake Region High School.
“Every player on the roster this summer played varsity baseball at least part of the season in the spring,” said Gilman coach Walt Cary. “We went from struggling for kids last year to having 27 kids out this year. The program’s made great strides.”
Andy Valley is going to be a team to deal with all season, drawing its players from two of the top Western Class C programs, Jay and Livermore Falls, and from Class A Leavitt Area High School.
With early-season rain and with some of the primary teams from the zone still in the high school playoffs last week, teams are just getting started, but if early results are any indication, Benson may be dead-on.
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