The hottest team in the Mountain Valley Conference is Dirigo, which enters Friday’s game against Winthrop with a 10-game winning streak.

The Cougars have not lost since dropping the season opener, 4-2, to St. Dom’s  during April vacation. Coach Ryan Palmer said they picked up steam when the full roster started to take shape after several players went away for the break.

“It took us a while to get going because, at first, we didn’t have our full team there,” Palmer said. “Once we got everyone back, we started clicking on all cylinders.”

Over the course of the streak, the Cougars are averaging 10.4 runs per game. They have four batters over the .400 mark — T.J. Frost, Chad Snowman, Hunter Ross and Ben Holmes.

More importantly, the lineup is doing some of its best work with men on base.

“We’re not leaving a lot of runners on base. We’re finding ways to get them in, and that’s been huge,” Palmer said.

Ben Holmes has followed in the footsteps of Ryan Lafleur and Arik Fenstermacher in giving Dirigo a workhorse at the top of the rotation. Holmes has won six straight since losing to St. Dom’s and is rapidly climbing up the school’s career win list. With 17 career victories, he’ll have a shot at eclipsing Lafleur’s record by season’s end.

“Ben Holmes has all we could ever ask for at the top of the rotation,” Palmer said.

The Cougars have the toughest stretch in their schedule to close out the season, starting with the upstart Ramblers on Friday. They’ll get another shot at St. Dom’s next Monday, followed by games with Mt. Abram, Wiscasset and Telstar. If they win out, the Cougars would likely clinch the No. 1 seed in Western C.

Rebel with a lot of causes

If one followed Telstar baseball exclusively through the box scores, it would seem Corey Howard is just an extra base machine.

Howard is indeed putting on an impressive slugging display. But that only tells part of the story of the Rebels’ senior first baseman/pitcher’s season.

“Corey does everything,” Telstar coach Bob Remington said. “He was the winning pitcher the other night against Mountain Valley. He came in and pitched the last 2 1/3 (innings) and shut them down and we were able to break the tie in extra innings (in an 11-9 win). But that’s the weak part of his game.”

“He’s a first baseman who could play anywhere in the field,” Remington said. “He has possibly the best ground ball fielding technique on the team. He’s got an average arm, but after that, everything he does is top of the line.”

Howard hits (over .400 batting average) and hits for power and forms one of the top 3-4 tandems in the MVC with fellow senior Danny Whitney.

And he doesn’t stop making opposing pitchers nervous when he’s out of the batter’s box.

“I’ve never had a kid run the bases like he can,” Remington said. “He went second to home on a pickoff throw that got away, because as soon as he saw it coming out of the pitcher’s hand, he knew it was going to be over the third baseman’s head and he took off. He’ll go first to third on a wild pitch because he’s thinking the next base. Not the one he’s got.”

Howard is headed to Thomas College to play baseball next year.

Penultimate week showdowns

The final full week of regular season baseball action features some key matchups. St. Dom’s and Dirigo, the top two teams in the Western C Heals, meet for the second time this season on Monday. Winthrop can pick up a heap of Heal Points and possibly clinch a home playoff game from a schedule which includes Dirigo on Friday, Hall-Dale next Wednesday and Telstar next Friday.

Mountain Valley’s playoff hopes in Western B rely on making hay during a stretch drive that includes games with St. Dom’s, Spruce Mountain and Hall-Dale. Leavitt, in similar straits, has Medomak Valley, Camden Hills, Lincoln Academy and Oak Hill on its docket. 

In Eastern A, Lewiston will have to do well on the road if the defending Eastern A champion hopes to have at least one home playoff game. The Blue Devils travel for three of their next four, against Mt. Blue, Oxford Hills and Edward Little, and have a big home date with Erskine.