Big East baseball gets league, schedule change

When the Eastern Maine Class A baseball regular season kicks off next Wednesday, it will feature a different scheduling look, as was the case in sports such as basketball and soccer earlier in the school year.

The Big East Conference’s Class A teams are now playing within the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference schedule, with Bangor, Brewer, Hampden Academy, Nokomis of Newport and Old Town joined by KVAC schools Skowhegan, Lawrence of Fairfield, Messalonskee of Oakland and Erskine Academy of South China to comprise the KVAC Class A North.

The Class A North teams will play games on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, with two games against each divisional opponent to reach 16 games for the season. Each team also will have two bye dates within their schedule.

That stands in contrast to recent years, when Big East Class A teams played each other three times while completing their schedules with Big East Class B opponents. The Big East Class A teams also played a Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday schedule last spring.

“I think it’s going to benefit all the teams,” said Hampden Academy coach David Shapiro of the change. “This year we’ll be able to see what our [Class A] competition is, the same as we were able to do in basketball and soccer.”

One additional benefit for the Big East Class A teams with the new schedule is that they will be more likely to be able to host early round playoff games if they finish with a good record, because they generally have been unable to garner as many Heal points playing a mix of Class A and less pointworthy Class B schools in recent years as have KVAC teams playing an all-Class A schedule.

Last year, for instance, Bangor, Hampden Academy and Brewer were the top three teams in the Big East Class A standings but finished sixth, eighth and ninth in the final Heal points.

“With the parity there is in the league, a team going 15-1 is probably not going to happen this year,” said Brewer coach David Morris. “But if you go 10-6, it’s probably going to be a legitimate 10-6.”

With the season starting several days earlier this year than in 2005 – the Maine Principals’ Association actually is allowing countable games as of April 13 – it’s made the fact that the mild winter and relatively dry spring has allowed teams to practice and scrimmage outdoors earlier than usual even more important.

For while April vacation week once was reserved for preseason trips and exhibition games, now it’s home to Opening Day.

At Hampden Academy, the Broncos practiced outside for the first time on March 21 and have been hosting scrimmages for the last week.

“We’ve been fortunate,” said Shapiro, whose team also benefits from the artificial surface field next to the school’s baseball complex at Bordick Park. “We have a very young team this year, so the reps the kids have gotten by being able to practice outdoors have really helped us learn their skill levels.”

Brewer held its first outdoor practice March 29, while Bangor went outdoors for the first time a day later, though the Rams spent much of last week indoors working on drills.

Most teams have had exhibition games in recent days, including Monday when Bangor faced Mt. Blue of Farmington – a KVAC North school in basketball but a KVAC South team in baseball – and Brewer squared off against Bucksport.

“For the first time out I don’t know that we struck out at all, we put the ball in play pretty well,” said Bangor coach Jeff Fahey, whose team visits Brewer in a mutual season opener at 1 p.m. on April 19.

Other KVAC Class A North openers next Wednesday include Old Town at Nokomis and Hampden Academy at Erskine Academy.