Before there is a playoff in Eastern A baseball this year, there will be a play-in.

Mt. Blue (7-9) and Lawrence (6-10) finished tied for 11th in the final high school baseball Heal Point standings released Thursday. As a result, the Maine Principals’ Association has ordered a one-game playoff to be held between the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference rivals at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Fairfield to determine who gets the final tournament berth.

“I thought they did the right thing,” Collins said.

Collins said there was initially confusion about whether the matter would be decided on the field. The bulletin coaches received before the season stated that in the event of a tie in the Heals, the first tiebreaker would be head-to-head results and the second tiebreaker would be a coin flip. Mt. Blue and Lawrence split their two regular-season meetings.

“Other sports, like the softball bulletin, list having a playoff game as the second tiebreaker. I don’t know if they made a mistake in ours or what,” Collins said. “I got a call around 1:30 p.m. asking me what I wanted to do, and I told them I want to play.”

A coin flip was held to determine the site of the game, with Lawrence winning the home field. The Bulldogs blanked the Cougars, 5-0, on Monday in Fairfield to avenge a 5-3 Mt. Blue win on May 8 at Hippach Field.

“The first game, they had more opportunities to score than we had but we came out on top,” Collins said. “The second game, we had more opportunities than they did and they came out on top.”

“I think it’s two teams that are pretty even, two pretty young teams,” he added.

The winner Saturday earns the right to face defending Eastern A champion Brewer, the No. 6 seed, in Tuesday’s preliminary.

Messalonskee earned the top seed in Class A East, followed by Edward Little, Cony and Bangor. Those four teams will first vie for the KVAC title. The conference semifinals will be played Saturday, with the Red Eddies hosting Cony at 4 p.m. at Pettengill Park.

All four of those teams earned first-round byes in the tournament, along with fifth-seeded Mt. Ararat. Once the playoffs begin next Tuesday, eighth-seeded Oxford Hills will host No. 9 Skowhegan. The Eddies will meet the winner of the prelim between No. 7 Brunswick and No. 10 Hampden Academy.

In Western B, defending regional champion Cape Elizabeth is the top seed, and will take a bye to the quarterfinals along with Mountain Valley, Lincoln Academy, Greely and York. Gray-New Gloucester earned the No. 10 seed and will meet Yarmouth in Tuesday’s prelim.

No. 11 Oak Hill will travel to No. 6 Wells. The 8-8 Raiders edged out 9-5 Lisbon for the final playoff spot by three points.

St. Dom’s easily seized the top seed in Western C by sweeping their Western Maine Conference peers and earning three wins in four games against Class B competition. In fact, the Saints’ tournament index (127.89) would have placed them second in Western B.

The Saints (15-1) had a streak of four consecutive Western C championships snapped last season. Coach Bob Blackman said this team is different than those other dominant squads, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“We’ve always had at least one hard thrower on our pitching staff, one guy that you know can shut it down,” he said. “We haven’t had that this year, and we’ve done pretty well. Half of our games (eight of 16) have been shutouts. Go figure. We’ve had 13 games where we have struck out the opponents three or less times. This team also has had a lot of confidence in the field.”

St. Dom’s awaits the winner of the prelim featuring No. 8 Mt. Abram and No. 9 Traip Academy.

In the other prelims, defending Western C champion Livermore Falls will host No. 13 Monmouth. The Mustangs edged out Sacopee Valley by six-tenths of a point for the final playoff spot. The winner of that game goes on to meet the victor of the prelim pitting fifth-seeded Winthrop against No. 12 Telstar. Dirigo, the third seed, will meet the winner of Tuesday’s game between No. 6 Wiscasset and No. 11 Georges Valley.

In Western D, Richmond secured the top spot by virtue of its 6-1 win over the Lakers last week. Rangeley will host No. 3 Buckfield in the semifinals scheduled for June 13.

The remaining top seeds across the state include two defending state champions – Deering (Western A) and Gardiner (Eastern B), as well as George Stevens Academy (Eastern C) and Katahdin (Eastern D).