When Steven Colbeth attempts to earn a roster spot on the Thomas College baseball team next spring, he will carry with him a resume that includes an incredible senior season at Washington Academy in East Machias.

Granted, WA’s baseball field isn’t the biggest in Down East Maine. In fact, Raiders coach and athletic director Blaine Steeves describes it as a “band box.”

But right field requires a fairly legitimate clout for a home run, and that’s where Colbeth had much of his success this spring.

The left-handed hitting senior from Machiasport batted .640 in leading WA to the Eastern Maine Class C quarterfinals, with 32 hits in 50 at-bats. Of those hits, 20 went for extra bases – nine doubles, two triples and nine home runs.

The 6-foot, 210-pound Colbeth also struck out just once while drawing 17 walks, meaning he reached base 49 times in 67 plate appearances.

“I’ve coached baseball for 14 or 15 years, and he’s the best hitter I’ve coached,” said Steeves of Colbeth, a four-year starter who finished his high school career with 29 home runs. “He’s lost a ton of baseballs down here.”

The All-Downeast Athletic Conference honoree played several positions this spring, including pitcher, first base, third base and the outfield, while hitting in the No. 3 spot in the Raiders’ lineup.

On the mound, the right-hander compiled a 4-0 record, including a one-hitter against Narraguagus of Harrington and a four-hitter with 12 strikeouts in an Eastern C preliminary-round victory over Dexter.

Colbeth plans to play American Legion baseball this summer for a Calais team he helped qualify for the state tournament last year.

“He’s a quiet kid,” said Steeves, “but he does everything you ask him to do.”

Crusaders right on track

The John Bapst girls track team has won three consecutive Class C state championships, but there’s reason to believe even more good times may be ahead.

Just two seniors, Lily Krichels and Sara Miller, graduate from this year’s squad. And with a talented and deep junior class returning, the Crusaders seem poised for another run at a trophy next spring as they seek to close in on Winthrop’s Class C girls’ record of five straight titles from 1995 to 1999.

“We’ve still got a long way to go to get up to Winthrop winning five in a row and then six in seven years,” said John Bapst head coach Bruce Pratt.

Perhaps as crucial as talent to John Bapst’s success since it began its string of state championships in 2002 has been the team’s lack of complacency with that success.

“We really don’t take anything for granted,” said Krichels, who plans to run track at Oberlin College next spring. “Winning over the years has given us confidence, but it’s given us confidence to do better. It’s all about confidence, but you have to use that confidence in a way that’s not cocky or haughty.

“We’re always to some extent in a competition with ourselves. Everyone’s always remembering their times and trying to improve them. There’s a lot of self-motivation.”

All of John Bapst’s individual-event winners at this year’s state meet – junior Katie Andrle in the 100 and 300 hurdles, junior Nicole Lavertu in the 1,600 and sophomore Maddy Glover in the 3,200 – are back next year. So, too, are three members of the Crusaders’ record-setting 4×800 relay team – Lavertu and classmates Evelyn Sharkey and Courtney Martin – as well as another prolific point producer in junior Elaine Colwell.

“With this junior class, Bapst had an unusually large percentage of girls who came in that year, and the way it’s worked out it’s really bearing fruit now,” Pratt said.

Pratt also sees a strong relationship between success in the classroom and success in extracurricular activities among members of his track team.

“They’re all top students,” he said, “and I’ve noticed over the years that my best track athletes are good students, too.

“For the kids who can really focus mentally and get prepared for a physics test, well, getting ready for the 400 isn’t so hard.”

Bucks dig in their cleats

Bucksport’s drive to its first state Class C outdoor track championship nearly was derailed by a pair of missing cleats.

With seven teams still in contention for the title midway through the meet, the Golden Bucks figured to pick up points from top-seeded Deven Eaton in the javelin. But Eaton, who already had placed sixth in the long jump and was part of Bucksport’s first-place 4×100 relay team, had the cleats he uses when throwing the javelin stolen recently, and without them he couldn’t get the traction he needed and finished out of the points picture.

“We’ve been in this position before, Bucksport has, where you go in and you’ve got all the seeds lined up like they’re supposed to be,” said Bucks’ coach Chris Jones. “But in track, a missed handoff in the 4-by-400 or someone gets DQ’d, and that’s your meet right there.

“I thought with Deven that was it. There he was seeded first, and he doesn’t have any cleats, so he’s slipping all over the place and ends up finishing 17th. But the meet was so close, we were still able to pull it off.”

Bucksport was led to its title by senior Josh Johnson and junior Nick Tymoczko. Johnson, who plans to play football at Husson College this fall, won the 100 and 200, anchored the championship 4×100 relay and placed third in the high jump. Tymoczko placed second in the 110 and 300 hurdles and joined with Johnson, Eaton and Chris Woodman on the 4×100 relay team.

“With Josh winning two events and placing third in the high jump, and Tymoczko in the hurdles and our relay team, the way those guys scored was huge,” said Jones.

“Most of these guys are football players, and they get that toughness from football. They don’t like to lose. Tymoczko doesn’t like to lose, and Johnson doesn’t, either. None of them do.”

The past meets the present

When Foxcroft Academy’s Brandon Hall high-jumped 6-81/4 at the Class C state championships to break the old state record of 6-71/2, Randy Wade was one of the more interested spectators.

Wade was the previous record-holder – of a mark that had stood since 1981, when he was a track standout at Wiscasset High School.

Now a cabinetmaker living in Jefferson, Wade went on to tie his own record in 1982. Ironically, a few years later he helped coach the cousin of Hall’s mother, Aaron Bradbury, as Bradbury became a state high jump champion while attending Lincoln Academy in Newcastle during the late 1980s.

Hall, a senior who plans to play basketball at Maine Maritime Academy next winter, not only won his third straight Class C high jump title last weekend, but also swept the long and triple jumps for the second straight year – all despite coming off surgery last fall to repair a torn anterior cruciate ligament.

“The kid is impressive,” said Wade, “and all the numbers he’s put up have been exceptional.”

Ernie Clark may be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or eclark@bangordailynews.net