As of Saturday night, the Zone 3 American Legion tournament picture hadn’t come completely into focus. One thing Gayton Post knows, though, is it won’t have to relive last year’s nightmare.

Gayton clinched its second straight regular season title Saturday with a doubleheader sweep of Mechanic Falls. Its 16-2 record was matched by Bessey Motors, but Gayton secured the top spot via a tiebreaking system that assigns a point value for the wins accumulated by each team Bessey and Gayton had beaten this season.

With the regular season title, Gayton at least clinches a spot in next Saturday’s state tournament play-in game against the Zone 4 runner-up. Last year, Gayton won the regular season with a 17-1 record but was shut out of the state tournament completely after losing a second-round game in the zone playoffs. New rules adopted by the Maine American Legion at least give the regular season champ another shot.

“It’s a big deal to us because we didn’t get in last year after going 17-1,” Gayton coach Todd Cifelli said. “After last year, it was kind of important to our kids to lay claim to the top of the division.

Gayton will open the zone tournament Monday by hosting Northern Oxford County, the No. 8 seed with a 6-12 record. What comes after that was still up in the air Saturday night as zone officials tried to sort out a tie for third between Windham and Swasey-Torrey of Dixfield and a three-way tie for fifth among Bethel, Brunswick and Smith-Tobey of Bath.

Regardless of who is playing whom, the quarterfinals will begin Monday, followed by the semifinals Tuesday and championship on Wednesday. The champion clinches a spot in the state tournament, which begins July 28 in South Portland. If Gayton wraps up the zone tournament title, too, the runner-up will need to win the state play-in game.

With the quick turnaround between games, pitching will be at a premium in the zone tourney.

“You’ve got to be deep,” Bessey Motors coach Shane Slicer said. “If you don’t have a very deep pitching staff, you’re not going to go very far, at least in the big picture.”

The dilemma facing even coaches with the deepest pitching staffs is how to set up their rotation for the zone tourney. Cifelli said he has confidence in his top four starters, Mat Gordon, Corbin Hyde, Jeff Keene and Alex Wong, but doesn’t want to be caught leaving an ace in his deck.

“Coaches have to make the decision of who they want to pitch and when,” Cifelli said. “Do you throw a guy early in the tournament to get wins? Do you save a guy for later in the tournament? If you have a No. 1 pitcher, when do you decide to use them? If you have one in a single-elimination tournament, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to save him if you lose and you still have him in your back pocket.”

Slicer agreed coaches probably won’t take anything for granted when setting up their rotation.

“It’s hard to pinpoint your pitching right now,” he said. “If you come in second, you’ve got to have them ready for Saturday, so you’ll probably throw your ace Monday or Tuesday.”

Bessey, which includes members of 2010 Class A state champion Oxford Hills as well as Lake Region and Fryeburg representatives, will be trying to pull off a feat that lately has only been accomplished by the Deering/Nova Seafood tag-team — high school and Legion state titles in the same summer. Erik Henderson, who tossed a shutout in the 1-0 state championship win over Biddeford last month, anchors the deep pitching staff, while Sun Journal Player of the Year Matt Verrier leads a deep and potent lineup.

Slicer, who coaches both the Vikings and Bessey, knows the perils of trying to pull off the diamond double. In 2005, he guided Oxford Hills to a Class A title and Bessey Motors to the zone title, but Bessey was eliminated from the state tournament in just two games.

“It’s not something we’ve really talked about,” said Slicer, whose team ended the season with a doubleheader sweep of Northern Oxford County. “The guys just know we need to start focusing better now, and I think they’ve done that.”

Swasey-Torrey, which consists of a number of players from Class C state champion Dirigo, can also pull off the double title coup.