More than ever, high school baseball teams in Maine are buying into the old adage that baseball is a game of inches.

The squeeze play, whether utilized in “safety” or “suicide” form, is an increasingly popular way for teams to maximize every inch on the diamond. Combining strategy, timing, baserunning and bat control, it is the pet play of baseball purists and the pet peeve of unsuspecting defenses.

And all it requires is a runner at third base and a bat meeting the ball.

“The suicide squeeze is seemingly being used more than ever in high school baseball,” Lewiston coach Todd Cifelli said. “When it’s executed effectively, it’s one of the prettiest plays in baseball. When something goes wrong, it’s the proverbial joke cigar blowing up in your face.”

St. Dom’s appeared in four straight Class C state championship games this decade, winning two, following the premise that all it takes to change an inning, a game, or even a season, is a ball rolling in front of home plate.

Teams that traditionally boast power-packed offenses have made the squeeze more a part of their game. But the play’s biggest boosters say it is best used as a regular tool rather than a stop-gap measure to cover occasional offensive shortcomings.

While the Saints have had some of Class C’s most potent offenses over the last six years, they have become notorious for their brand of small ball. Coaches Bob Blackman and Allan Turgeon can cite numerous examples where the squeeze turned their season into gold.

“We won our first state championship (in 2005) on a squeeze. Jake Albert put one by (George Stevens Academy’s) Colin Henry,” Turgeon said.

The Saints originally made the squeeze play a big part of their offense to maximize their scoring opportunities.

“We didn’t want to give up runs with guys at third base,” Blackman said. “We wanted to make sure that we took advantage of every opportunity to get that run across.”

But the more they used it, the more they saw that the squeeze play could be used as a psychological weapon, one that can change the emotional course of a game as effectively as a 400-foot home run.

Current St. Dom’s seniors Aaron Allen and Casey Parker relish putting the pressure on opposing pitchers and defenses.

“It’s a big momentum changing play for us, I think,” Allen said. “It’s a tough play to defend and it’s a great way to score because it really pumps us up.”

“It annoys the other team, too. It’s frustrating for them,” Parker said.

Allen was introduced to the Saints’ squeeze play while watching his older brother, Andy, who played in four straight state title games at St. Dom’s. Parker was a sophomore when he scored what turned out to be the winning run in the 2007 Western Class C championship against Winthrop on a suicide squeeze dropped down perfectly by Andy Allen.

“I’d never really seen anything like that as much as I did my first year on the team here. Now, it’s just kind of old hat,” Parker said.

Andy Allen’s bunt came in the first inning. He had two strikes on him, which is when most teams take the squeeze off. For the Saints, it is, as Parker put it, old hat.

“We feel we can bunt any time, any situation, any batter,” Blackman said. “We don’t need a specific batter, a specific runner, to execute it. We feel like we can do it with any guy on our team, and that’s why it works well for us.”

More teams are trying to make it work for them. Some started using the squeeze to compensate for a lack of punch in their offense, then decided to make it a part of their arsenal regardless of how much power they have.

“We don’t have the pop this year that we usually have, so we have to do it once in awhile just to keep the other team honest, keep them moving, bring them in a little bit,” Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer said. “In order to be in it, that’s how we have to play.”

“It’s tough for me to adjust my style because I really haven’t had to (use it),” Slicer added. “But last year taught me a lot that maybe we should have been doing that more. We lost five games by a run. Maybe if we did it, we could have gotten over that hump.”

The squeeze is one of the most aggressive plays in baseball, but there are degrees of aggressiveness. Some teams prefer the suicide squeeze, which requires the runner at third to break for the plate on the pitch. Others lean toward the safety squeeze, which puts the onus on the hitter to put the ball in play before the runner breaks for the plate.

“At Lewiston, we like to execute the safety squeeze,” Cifelli said. “The safety squeeze has less risk than the suicide squeeze. But there is more pressure on the bunter to put an effective bunt down the first or third base lines. From a coaching perspective, if the bunter does not have an effective bunt or misses the pitch, we are still left with a runner at third base.”

“With a safety squeeze, you can’t just be happy to get your bat on the ball,” Blackman said. “If you’ve got that guy that you know will put it in a good spot, you can play both sides – you can be off on contact. If you read the play right, you can go on the throw. The safety squeeze has to have more finesse on it, and you have to be more confident in the person at the plate.”

The suicide puts a lot of pressure on the batter, who must make contact or the runner will likely be caught stealing home.

“You know what you need to do, though,” Parker said. “It’s not like there’s any decision-making you have to do up there. You just need to get the ball down.”

But the play also relies heavily on the runner’s timing.

“You don’t want to give it away too early because that makes it easy for the pitcher to pitch out. But you want to get a good jump, too,” Parker said.

“If he gives it up too early, we can defend it 95 percent of the time,” Blackman said.

Defenses are far less successful than that against a squeeze that is properly executed. Defending the play to throw the runner out at home is almost impossible. Teams are usually better off conceding the run and getting the out at first.

“You can try to guess the situation and pitch out at times,” Cifelli said. “If the bunt ultimately gets down, the fielder must get an out and prevent a big inning from starting.”

Teams can sometimes become so preoccupied with defending the squeeze that they can play into their opponents’ hands. St. Dom’s and other teams known for their small ball techniques will often let their hitters swing away if they see a team pulling its corner infielders in to guard against it.

Ultimately, the best way to prevent squeeze plays, Cifelli said, is to get ahead of a team that likes to use it by multiple runs. Coaches tend to put the small ball philosophy in their back pocket when they need a big inning.

Whether teams rely on the big inning or not, the squeeze play’s popularity may continue to rise in high school baseball, especially if teams such as St. Dom’s show how effective it can be.

“It’s easy. There’s nothing difficult about it,” Blackman said. “Some teams think there is and they fear it. But we see it as an easy way to get a run across.”