The names on the front of the American Legion baseball jerseys are a change from those worn during the high school season, but the players, by and large, remain the same.
Tonight, in a matchup that seems too ironic to be true, Bessey Motors, with players from the 2005 Class A baseball state champion Oxford Hills Vikings, will square off against New Auburn Post 153, made up mostly of players from this year’s edition of the Edward Little Red Eddies’ baseball team. Those two teams met Monday in the Eastern Class A championship game.
“I don’t know how easy it’s going to be for them to get up for the first Legion game of the year after what we went through this week,” said Bessey coach Shane Slicer. “But, we have 18 guys on the roster, and some of them are 19-year-olds that haven’t played in a while, and some of the high school kids that didn’t get to play much will get to play now, so it’ll work out.”
As if the matchup needed any more spicing up, New Auburn’s coach this season is Jeff Benson, Athletic Director at Oxford Hills.
“It was just one of those things where I didn’t want the kids in Auburn to go from senior league baseball to nothing for the summer,” said Benson. “As the president of Auburn Suburban Little League, I just couldn’t let that happen. I’ve certainly coached enough in the past, and I thought it would be fun to get back into it.”
The New Auburn post did not field a team last season, but has a full 18-player roster with which to work this season.
This year’s success by several local teams has put a hurt on the beginning of the schedule.
“Between the rain we had and the playoffs, we only had four teams able to get any games in,” said Zone 3 Commissioner Chuck Berube. “It’s tough on the pitching, but in Legion ball, teams are usually stocked with pitching anyway.”
Bessey Motors has missed five games of the 21-game regular season so far, all of which have to be made up. New Auburn lost four, choosing to play Tuesday night against Andy Valley. They also made up a game Wednesday night at Gray, leaving them three games behind.
“A couple weeks back, we had a practice and we talked about having to postpone the doubleheader against Gayton (with players from Lewiston, St. Dom’s and Lisbon),” said Benson. “They didn’t care that they had to play Oxford Hills on Monday, they wanted to play Saturday too. Kids are resilient. I’m not worried about them.”
In the Bessey camp, Slicer accepted the harsh reality.
“We’re basically going to have five games a week from here out,” said Slicer. “We’ll work some kids in that didn’t get much time and just spread it out. We’re going to have to.”
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