There’s a certain amount of job security on the Van Buren baseball team – the Crusaders have just nine players.

But that lack of depth hasn’t hurt the team, which finished the regular-season 13-1 and is seeded first for the Eastern Maine Class D playoffs.

The Crusaders will host the winner of a prelim between No. 9 Ashland and No. 8 Katahdin of Stacyville in a regional quarterfinal on Thursday, according to the final Heal Point Ratings released Friday.

“Attitude-wise, the kids all know they’re going to play,” said 18th-year head coach Brian Hews, “and there’s no pressure on them because they know I’m not going to take them out. I certainly can’t threaten to take them out of the ballgame.”

High school baseball in Maine always faces a myriad of challenges unique to the season, from the uncertainty of spring weather to the conflicts of April vacation, from senior class trips to the general anticipation of the end of the school year.

For Van Buren, those issues are magnified by the fact the Crusaders don’t have the numbers to compensate for players who occasionally miss practice for one reason or another.

“We’re not a big school anyway [the enrollment is approximately 140], and we have a tennis team, so we’ve often had teams with 11 or 12 players,” Hews said. “But this year we’ve got just nine, so we practice when we can as we can. Some practices we have just five or six guys who can come, so we take those guys and work with them.”

The Crusaders also have been fortunate to be free of serious health issues during the regular season, save for one brief scare.

“We were on defense, and one of the players took a ball in the eye and had to come out,” Hews said. “We had to play defense with eight players for half an inning, and then he was able to come back in the game.”

Occasionally the team takes a proactive approach in the interest of remaining healthy.

“In some games when we’re been able to build a substantial lead, I’ve told my guys ‘No slides. Don’t be greedy, take what you can get,'” Hews said.

“They understand. You don’t want to get away from playing the game the way it’s supposed to be played, but we have to realize we only have nine players.”

Three of those players form the nucleus of the Crusaders’ pitching staff. Senior right-hander Andy Martin and junior lefty Trevor Hews are both 4-0, while sophomore right-hander Andrew Taylor is 4-1.

When Martin isn’t pitching, he plays shortstop. Hews plays either second or third base when not on the mound, and Taylor is the everyday third baseman when not taking his turn in the rotation.

Senior first baseman Dustin Cyr has the other pitching victory, and he’s the team’s top hitter at .560 with four home runs and 32 RBIs.

Rounding out the starting lineup – and the team – are freshman catcher Alex Martin, sophomore center fielder Kyle Chasse, junior left fielder Lance Smith; sophomore second baseman Matt Parent; and sophomore right fielder Brandon Boulware.

“I like the nine guys I have,” said coach Hews, Trevor’s father. “It’s been one of the most enjoyable years I’ve had coaching. The kids have given every-thing you could ask for and more.”

Van Buren has been strong in its closest games, a pair of one-run wins against Class C Madawaska and a come-from-behind 4-2 victory over Central Aroostook of Mars Hill.

“We’ve done enough to get by against the good teams,” Hews said.

Hews expects defending champion Lee Academy, undefeated Shead of Eastport, Southern Aroostook of Dyer Brooks and Deer Isle-Stonington to be among the top contenders for the EM title, and is hopeful his own club can make a splash in postseason play.

As for the team’s future, there’s some uncertainty. A year ago, there was no middle-school team. This year there is a team, but it began the season with 10 players and soon dipped to nine.

The low participation throughout the system comes as somewhat of a surprise, given that the high school team has had success in recent years. The Crusaders went 8-6 last spring to earn a playoff bid, and won an Eastern Maine championship as recently as 2001.

“We’re losing two seniors from a nine-player squad this year, and I don’t know if we have two eighth-graders to replace them,” said Hews. “The last 10 or 12 years we’ve won a lot of ballgames. It’s been kind of a mystery why more of the kids haven’t come out.”