American Legion baseball in eastern and northern Maine is by definition an exercise in travel as much as it is mere battles between the baselines.

With Zone 1 stretching from Houlton in the north to Waldo County in the south and from Calais in the east to Penquis in the west, frequent driver miles are the norm from mid-June to early August.

But the case of the Waldo County Wildcats is even more extreme. Coach Emery Shute’s club has just three true home games in Searsport this summer, the same number of home games it had a year ago.

The rest of the time, “home” is Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, Husson College in Bangor or Brewer High School.

Athletic field availability is at a premium in the Midcoast region from where Waldo County draws its players -Belfast, Camden Hills, Rockland, Searsport and Mount View high schools – so for the second straight year Wildcats’ coach Emery Shute and his players are left to make the best of a summer-long road trip.

“Where the kids come from is spread out, so they have to travel one way or the other,” said Shute, Waldo County’s sixth-year coach. “But the places where we get to play like Mansfield and Husson have great fields, and the kids love to play under the lights.”

Zone 1 commissioner Dave Paul said he leaves the matter of procuring fields to the individual Legion teams, but he appreciates the dedication of the Waldo County players to their program and baseball in general.

“They’ve got kids coming from as far as Camden Hills and Rockland, and then they have to travel another 45 minutes to get to where they’re playing the games. That’s a commitment,” Paul said. “Traveling to play in our area is just a necessary evil.”

Shute finds an additional benefit in the lengthy road trips, namely a chance for players from different schools to get to know each other better.

“Everybody’s not driving to the games by themselves,” he said. “We meet at certain places and car pool as much as we can, and I think it helps us become a more close-knit team.”

The Wildcats were able to use a field in Searsport for preseason practices. But with an average of three games a week during the regular season, subsequent practices will be infrequent.

“We go with the idea that if we win, we don’t practice,” Shute said. “It worked well for us last year, so we’ve started out the same way this year.”

And this year has started out well, with Waldo County rallying from a 3-0 deficit to defeat Bangor and standout pitcher Josh Young 4-3 in a “home” game Tuesday at Mansfield Stadium.

“That was a game we can build some momentum from,” Shute said.

NOTES: For the second straight year, Zone 1 is split into five-team North and South divisions. Bangor, Calais, Houlton, Lincoln and Orono-Old Town are in the North; Brewer, Hampden, Penquis, Trenton and Waldo County are in the South. Each team plays three games against teams in its own division, and two games against teams in the other division, for a 22-game regular-season schedule. The top two teams in each division and next two best teams based on records regardless of division advance to the Zone 1 tournament July 24-28. … Waldo County has just three Mount View High School players on its roster, all of whom played for the Wildcats last year. Other Mount View players are competing for a new team in Zone 2 fielded from the Mount View, Winslow and Erskine Academy programs.