The Eagles highlight a bevy of area teams that have punched their ticket to the high school baseball, softball, boys lacrosse and girls lacrosse post-seasons, which began on Monday when Mt. Ararat visited Brewer in a softball preliminary (the Eagles won, 12-2 and will face Messalonskee on Wednesday at 3:30 p.m., in Oakland).
Bob Neron’s Mt. Ararat baseball squad used a solid mid-season run that produced wins over Lawrence, Camden Hills and Thursday’s Class A North quarterfinal opponent Oxford Hills. The 7-9 Eagles, the No. 6 seed, head to South Paris for a 4 p.m. showdown with the third-seeded Vikings, who are 11-5.
In 2009, Mt. Ararat produced a 10-6 mark before falling to Bangor in the quarterfinals.
“We wanted to get to .500 and get to the playoffs,” said Neron. “This is a program that is headed in the right direction. We are happy to be here.”
Bangor (15-1) is the top seed in Class A North, with Edward Little (15-2) the second seed. Fifth-seeded Lawrence (9-7) visits No. 4 Brewer (10-6) in another quarterfinal.
Brunswick defeated “Battle of the Bridge” rival Mt. Ararat twice this season, but missed the playoffs after a 3- 13 season.
In Class B South, Freeport, led by hurler Jack Davenport, used a seven-game winning streak in producing a 10-6 mark for head coach Bill Ridge to claim the No. 7 seed.
The Falcons, who dropped their finale to Traip Academy, hosts Morse today at 4 p.m. in a prelim.
The Shipbuilders are a dangerous team despite the 4-12 mark and No. 10 seed. Morse has been in several close games this season and picked up a key late-season win over a talented Oceanside squad. If the Shipbuilders can find a way to scratch a few runs across the plate, this matchup might be interesting.
The winner of the Morse- Freeport contest heads to No. 2 York (11-5) for a quarterfinal later this week. Cape Elizabeth owns the No. 1 seed, with Greely and Maranacook receiving byes as the three and four seeds, respectively.
Lisbon appeared to be in the running for a high seed in Class C South after a six-game winning streak had the Greyhounds sitting at 10- 3 and No. 4 in the region. But, a pair of losses, 1-0 to No. 2 St. Dom’s and a 4-2 setback at Wiscasset, dropped the Greyhounds to the No. 6 spot, forcing Lisbon (11-5) to host 11th-seeded Carrabec (7-9) today in a preliminary at 4 p.m. Lisbon defeated Carrabec, 9-2, on May 18.
Thinking of the Wolverines, Wiscasset has a prelim date today with No. 7 Hall- Dale (12-4), with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m. in Farmingdale. The Wolverines fell to Hall-Dale, 12-1, on May 9. However, Wiscasset finished strong, winning three of its final four Mountain Valley Conference contests to close at 8-8 on the campaign.
Undefeated Monmouth is the top seed in Class C South, with St. Dom’s, Madison, Sacopee Valley and Traip rounding out the top five.
In Class D North, Richmond started the season 2-4, but rebounded to produce an 11-5 mark, good for the No. 3 seed. The Bobcats will entertain No. 6 North Yarmouth Academy (7-9) Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the quarterfinals. The teams met to open the season, with the Panthers coming out on top, 3-2, in eight innings.
Other quarterfinal action in Class D South has No. 8 Buckfield (6-10) at No. 1 Searsport (13-3), No. 7 Vinalhaven/North Haven (7-7) visiting second-seeded Valley (12-2), and No. 5 Rangeley (8- 5) taking on No. 4 Greenville (11-5).
Softball
For those keeping track, Richmond’s winning streak has reached 67 games. Once again, the Bobcats ran the table this season and will hit the playoffs with a 15-0 mark and the top seed in Class D South.
Richmond has shown little mercy to its opponents this season, averaging 17 runs per game while allowing a mere 1.6 a contest.
And, the Bobcats showed that they can win a close game as well. Against Sacopee Valley, Richmond trailed 3-1 late, but nipped away until eventually walking off with a 4-3 win.
Richmond has a bit of time to rest, with a semifinal opponent coming from the matchup between No. 5 Rangeley (6-7) and No. 4 Greenville (14-2). No. 6 Temple (5-9) visits third-seeded Buckfield (13-3) in another quarterfinal, with the winner heading to Vinalhaven/ North Haven (10-4), the No. 2 seed.
In Class A North, Messalonskee (16-0-1) is No. 1, followed by Oxford Hills (11-4- 1). Bangor is the three seed, Edward Little four and Cony is fifth.
Brooke Cox and Al Graffam lead the ninth-seeded Eagles, who finished 9-7. Mt. Ararat opened the season at home against Messalonskee and fell, 11-0.
Brunswick, despite a bit of improvement this season, missed out on the playoffs with a 2-14 mark.
In Class B South, Freeport (3-13) did not advance to the postseason. However, Will Laffely’s Morse Shipbuilders are in as the No. 12 seed and will visit Cape Elizabeth today at 4:15 p.m.
Laffely will need to regroup his squad, which lost its final five games to close at 7-9.
York (15-1) is the top seed in the region, followed by Yarmouth (13-3), Greely (13- 3) and Oak Hill (14-2). The Morse-Cape Elizabeth victor visits Wales later this week.
Lisbon qualified for the postseason in Class C South and will take on third-seeded Carrabec (11-5) in a quarterfinal on Thursday at 3 p.m. in North Anson.
The Greyhounds had a tough outing against the Cobras on May 18, falling, 19-5, but Lisbon recovered to win three of its final four games to finish 10-6 for the No. 6 spot.
Madison, Telstar, Carrabec, Traip and Hall- Dale are the top five seeds.
Wiscasset, under first-year coach Gordon Campbell, went 2-14 and missed the playoffs.
Lacrosse
The Brunswick boys are in a prime position to repeat as State Class A champs. Despite a massive loss to graduation, Don Glover’s Dragons went 10-2 and are seeded No. 1 in Class A North.
But, there will likely be obstacles in the way, with Brunswick slated to host a semifinal on Saturday against the winner of No. 5 Deering (7-5) and No. 4 Cheverus (8-4), Plus, the Dragons have found a roadblock in the way of second-seeded Messalonskee, which handed Brunswick a regular season loss on May 27 and downed the Dragons in the KVAC title game on Saturday.
Messalonskee hosts No. 7 Edward Little (7-5) in a quarterfinal, while No. 3 Lewiston entertains sixth-seeded Windham.
It was a tough season for the Mt. Ararat, Morse and Freeport lacrosse teams. Each missed the playoffs and combined for seven victories.
But, the girls lacrosse season was a solid one for area teams, led by Linda Levesque’s Morse Shipbuilders, the No. 1 seed in Class B North. Morse dropped just one game, a thrilling 8-7 overtime battle against undefeated St. Dom’s, the No. 2 seed in the region.
The Shipbuilders are not flashy, but have a solid defense and goaltending that have kept opponents from going on long scoring runs.
The Saints host No. 7 Camden Hills, third-seeded Yarmouth entertains No. 6 Freeport, and No. 4 Gardiner hosts No. 5 Boothbay in other quarterfinal play.
Morse hosts No. 8 Oceanside in Wednesday’s quarterfinal action on McMann Field. The Shipbuilders tripped up Oceanside twice this season — 7-5 and 9-6 — and rolled to a 13-5 victory over Cony on May 23. The Mariners edged Cony on Monday by an 8-7 count.
Freeport faces Western Maine Conference foe Yarmouth in the quarterfinals. The Falcons are 5-7 and dropped a 15-4 decision to the Clippers on May 4.
In Class A North, fifth-seeded Mt. Ararat (5-7) will look to find some scoring touch when it faces No. 4 Edward Little on Thursday in a quarterfinal at 4 p.m. at the Bates College turf in Lewiston.
The Eagles downed the Red Eddies, 9-5 on May 7.
Brunswick, the No. 7 seed, heads to second-seeded Windham today at 3:30 p.m. The Dragons are 2-10, but have shown much improvement this year, including an 8-6 upset win over Lewiston, the No. 3 seed in Class A North.
The Blue Devils host No. 6 Deering, while Messalonskee, the No. 1 seed, is home to eighth-seeded Cheverus in quarterfinal play.
Tennis
The lone team to qualify for the Regional finals is Rob Manter’s Brunswick girls, which punched its ticket with a 3-2 win over No. 3 Mt. Blue on Saturday.
The Dragons are 13-1 on the season and face top-seeded Lewiston at the University of Maine today at 4:30 p.m.
“These young ladies have worked very hard,” said Brunswick coach Rob Manter. “This team has great camaraderie almost to a fault from a coaching perspective. Some times I, as the coach, think they are having too much fun, but I realize this is part of the dynamic of this team. They have fun, they work hard and they support each other to the ninth degree.”
In two matchups this year, Brunswick has split with the Blue Devils, dropping a 3-2 contest in the regular-season finale before bounding back to capture the KVAC title at Lewiston by the same 3-2 score.
These two teams have some history. Counting Saturday, this will be the 14th meeting in 15 seasons between the teams in the postseason, with this year being the 10th time that the Blue Devils and Dragons will play for a berth in the state championship. In those matchups, Lewiston owns a 10-3 record over the Dragons and went on to win seven state titles. Brunswick has two state titles (2013 & 2014).
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