The State American Legion Baseball Tournament championship carried a little extra meaning for Old Town-Orono Twins Coach Dave Paul.

This year’s AL Northeast Regional is in Quincy, Mass., and Quincy’s Adams Field has a special place in Paul’s heart.

Adams Field was where Paul played for Old Town-Orono in the 1975 Northeast Regional. His coach was Carl “Stump” Merrill, who managed the New York Yankees a year ago. Paul was the youngest player on his team and one of the youngest player in the tournament at age 15.

He returned to Quincy three years later with another Old Town-Orono state championship team. That was the last time Old Town-Orono won a state AL title.

The 1975 Old Town-Orono team lost its opening round game to the Auburn Post team from Cranston, R.I., (3-2) but bounced back to win four straight games and extend the host Morrisette Post to a championship game. Morrisette, which had been beaten by Old Town-Orono 6-4 earlier that day, won the dramatic deciding game, 4-2 in 11 innings.

“In the first game, Mike Leveille, our regular first baseman, had to pitch and our backup first baseman, Matt Hackett, was injured,” recalled Paul. “So Stump needed a first baseman. He came over to me and flipped me a lefthanded first baseman’s mitt. I said “Thank you very much.” I had never played first base before in my life.”

Paul rose to the occasion. He lined a third-inning single to start a rally and scored a run in the 6-4 win.

He got in as a pinch hitter in the championship game and struck out against hard-throwing Tim Clifford in the 11th inning.

Three years later, Paul and Rick Bouchard were the pitching aces and Paul was also the team’s leading hitter with a .416 average entering the Regional.

Paul lost a heartbreaker in the opener, 3-2, to Rutland, Vt. He pitched a complete-game four-hitter. Two of the runs were unearned. He fanned 12.

“I remember that guy (Ricky Higgins) getting the hit in the ninth inning (to win it),” said Paul.

Paul had a chance to drive in the go-ahead run with his brother Jeff on third in the eighth inning but winning pitcher Shane Stacey snared his line drive while he was falling down.

In the second game, Bouchard lost another heartbreaker, a two-hitter, 2-1, to Rome, N.Y.

“I was hoping we’d win the state so I could go back to Quincy,” grinned Paul, who got his wish when his Twins whipped Nova Seafood of Portland, 27-10, in the title game.

Perhaps it was destiny.

The Twins have definitely overachieved.

When southpaw Aaron King, the ace of the Old Town High School staff, decided not to play Legion ball this summer, I thought Old Town-Orono’s state championship aspirations would go with him.

I expected the Twins to finish first or second in Zone 1 and win at least a couple of games in the state tournament.

Their pitching staff, outside of ace Steve Coombs, was comprised of pitchers who will be either high school seniors or juniors this fall. And pitching under that pressure in the tiny Togus ballpark is enough to unnerve a veteran pitcher. Plus, you usually need to receive at least four quality pitching performances to win an eight-team, double-elimination tournament.

Perhaps the other players sensed that their team was young on the mound and they needed to compensate. That’s exactly what happened. When you average 12 runs a game and commit only five errors in six games, you’re going to win.

And the pitchers, particularly Steve Coombs, Gary Sibley and Brian Wickett, came through.

The state championship was especially rewarding for Paul and his Old Town High School players, who saw a 6-1 lead evaporate into an 8-7 loss in the state Class A championship game to Edward Little High of Auburn.

They weren’t about to let this one slip away.