SCARBOROUGH — Tom Griffin starts three freshmen and three sophomores on his Scarborough High softball team. With only two starters returning from last year’s Class A state champions, the Red Storm were supposed to be vulnerable.

Instead, Scarborough won all 16 regular-season games to extend its winning streak to 56 and earned the Class A South top seed for the eighth consecutive season and 12th time in the last 13 seasons. And now, as the playoffs begin, Scarborough is poised to win its third straight Class A state title and sixth since 2007.

“I think tradition has a lot to do with it, expectations,” said Griffin. “We expect to be successful and the kids buy into it, the families buy into it. They’re all well-coached, right down to Little League. (The community) invests in the kids when they are young. They try to start kids pitching when they’re young. And if they’re successful when they’re young, they’re going to keep putting in that extra effort and hopefully they’re going to want to be a part of this.”

South Portland Coach Ralph Aceto said Scarborough’s program is the difference.

“Tommy’s got the program set up right down to a Little League that is head and shoulders above everyone else,” said Aceto. “The coaches at the Little League level work with the kids the same way they work with the kids at the high school level. The kids know if they want to be part of the (high school) program, they need to work on their game in the offseason.”

Aceto knows a little about beating Scarborough. His teams twice beat the Red Storm in regional finals (in 2010 and 2012) and the Red Riots are the only team other than Scarborough to earn the No. 1 ranking since 2007. That came in 2011 – and second-seeded Scarborough defeated South Portland 1-0 in the regional final en route to a state championship.

“You’ve got to play a perfect game and things have to fall your way if you’re going to beat them,” said Aceto.

This year’s success has been a surprise, simply because, said Griffin, “It’s the youngest team I’ve ever had.” Those words must sound ominous to every other SMAA coach.

Junior Bella Dickinson was 9-0 for Scarborough this year. She also hit five home runs. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

Senior Courtney Brochu at second base, and junior Bella Dickinson at shortstop and pitcher were the only returning starters. And they’ve carried a big load. Dickinson, one of the state’s best players, is hitting .459 with five home runs, 29 runs, 28 RBI and 10 stolen bases. She’s also 9-0 with 97 strikeouts in 61 innings and a 1.03 ERA. Brochu is batting .490 with 18 RBI and hasn’t made an error.

“I knew that we had a lot of talented underclassmen coming in and as long as we worked hard, and spent time on our chemistry, we’d figure things out,” said Dickinson.

The younger players have thrived. Freshman Katie Roy is batting .537, sophomore catcher Sylvia Foley is batting .435 and has thrown out 5 of 10 would-be base stealers. Freshman Caitlin Noiles is hitting .390, freshman A.J. Swett .373 and sophomore Mollie Verreault .354.

“We’ve asked a lot of our young kids,” said Griffin. “At times they’ve shown they’re very young and make typical mistakes young kids will make. So far it hasn’t cost us in a game.”

Griffin asks a lot of his players, often shifting them to new positions or giving them new roles. Take junior left fielder Ava McDonald. A right-handed hitting second baseman her entire life, she now starts in left field and is a left-handed slap hitter, taking advantage of her impressive speed.

McDonald said the transition wasn’t that hard. Besides, she said, “If I get to play, I don’t care where it is.”

That willingness to learn a new position or hitting style is a key to Scarborough’s success. “Every year you’ve got to see what pieces you have and how it all fits,” said Griffin. “Sometimes it takes a while to figure it out. We’ve had years where we’ve had to create a whole new infield of infielders who never played the infield before, or an outfield of outfielders who never played the outfield before. You have to get the kids to buy into it.”

This year Scarborough went to Florida for a preseason trip. Brochu said with all the new faces on the team, it was vital. “Building that chemistry off the field was very important,” she said. “It wasn’t perfect. Sixteen girls together for a week can be challenging. But we got a lot closer because of that trip and that’s been important to our success.”

As far as the streak of No. 1 seeds and consecutive victories? “We’re not thinking that we have to win because of the streak,” said Brochu. “We want to win because we want to win.”