American Legion Zone 1 baseball officials had hoped to get their schedule off to an early start this season.

But then Bangor, Bucksport, Searsport, and Lee Academy all advanced to high school state championship games last Saturday, and with so many Zone 1-eligible players on those rosters and some fields still recovering from the heavy rains of early June, the zone schedule had to be pushed back from its original June 15 opening night.

Players ages 14 through 19 are eligible for Legion baseball.

A couple of games already have been played, but the revised 2006 Zone 1 season begins in earnest tonight with five games involving all 10 teams.

Fred Lower, the junior varsity coach and varsity assistant at Class A state champion Bangor High School, takes over as head coach of the Bangor Legion team. He replaces Dr. John Winkin, who coached the Comrades to a third-place finish at the state American Legion tournament last summer after taking over for Jay Kemble.

Winkin, the Husson College head coach who is attending the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., had expressed interest in returning to the Legion dugout this summer, but the committee that oversees the Comrades – which draws primarily from Bangor High School – instead selected Lower for the head coaching duties.

Lower is one of three new coaches in Zone 1, along with Adam Sheehan of Hampden-Hermon and Chris Parsons of Presque Isle. Sheehan, a Bucksport High graduate, is a student at Husson College and a third baseman for the Eagles baseball team. He played for Brewer during his Legion days.

Parsons, a 2004 graduate of Presque Isle High School, played for the Presque Isle Legion team through last summer and recently completed his sophomore season as a catcher at New England College in Henniker, N.H.

Among other changes this year, players from Nokomis Regional High School in Newport will be eligible to play for the Hampden-Hermon River Dogs. Nokomis players previously competed for the Pittsfield-based Sebasticook entry in Zone 2, but that team folded after the 2005 season.

In addition, the Penquis Navigators, who played home games at Husson College in Bangor last year, will call Foxcroft Academy in Dover-Foxcroft their home field this summer. Waldo-Knox will play its home games at Searsport High School.

Zone 1 is divided into two five-team divisions. Bangor, Calais, Lincoln, Orono, and Presque Isle play in the North, while Brewer, Hampden-Hermon, Penquis, Trenton, and Waldo-Knox play in the South. Each team plays 22 regular-season games.

The six-team Zone 1 tournament is scheduled for July 21-24, with the winner and runner-up advancing to the state American Legion tournament July 29-Aug. 2 at Hadlock Field in Portland.

Brewer is the defending Zone 1 champion, while Bangor was the runner-up to earn the zone’s second berth in the 2005 state tourney.

This year’s state champion will qualify for the Northeast regional tournament Aug. 10-14 at Brockton, Mass., with the 80th American Legion World Series to be held Aug. 18-22 at Cedar Rapids, Iowa.