BANGOR – Mansfield Stadium represents hallowed ground to young baseball players from throughout northern, eastern and central Maine.

And to those teams from Curacao to Guam that have played their way into the Senior League World Series held here for the last four years, the field that Stephen King built even holds international appeal.

But when the top six teams in American Legion Zone 1 begin their double-elimination tournament Friday, Mansfield Stadium will serve temporarily as just a means to an end – a trip to Hadlock Field in Portland, site of this year’s state tournament.

“Early in the season, the guys wanted to know where the state tournament was, there was a lot of talk about it,” said Bangor coach Fred Lower. “As the season went along there wasn’t much talk about it, and right now we’re focused on Zone 1, but we’re excited to have a shot to get down there to play.”

The 2006 Zone 1 tournament begins at noon Friday and continues through Monday, with the top two finishers advancing to the state tournament that begins Saturday, July 29.

Friday’s schedule kicks off with top-seeded Brewer (19-3) facing No. 6 Presque Isle (11-11), followed by No. 2 Bangor (18-4) against No. 5 Penquis (11-11) at 4 p.m. and No. 3 Trenton (15-7) against No. 4 Waldo (12-10) at 8 p.m.

Brewer and Bangor, which represented the zone at the 2005 state tournament, are favored to make the trip south this year after winning their divisions by decisive margins. Brewer won the South Division by four games over Trenton, while Bangor had a seven-game bulge over second-place Presque Isle in the North.

“Brewer and Bangor are definitely the favorites, but I believe anyone can win this tournament,” said Penquis coach Billy Kane. “It all comes down to who has the deepest pitching. If your pitching can hang on and your defense can be steady, then the bats for any team can take over and win any game at any point.”

If pitching depth is the key – particularly given that tournament games are nine innings, as opposed to the majority of regular-season contests, which went seven – look to the top three seeds.

Brewer features All-Zone 1 first-team lefthander Jim Nicknair (4-1, 1.48 ERA), second-teamer Corey Cushing (5-0, 3.09) and Evan Economy (3-1, 4.64). Bangor has three All-Zone 1 selections in first-teamers Ian Edwards (6-0, 1.12) and Anthony DeRosa (4-0, 1.81) and second-teamer Jim Cox (3-1, 2.07), as well as Kyle Leeman, who pitched as both a starter and reliever in sparking Bangor High School to the 2006 Class A state championship.

As for Trenton, the Acadians boast the Zone 1 pitcher of the year in lefthander Collin Henry (4-0, 1.12) heading up a staff that also includes All-Zone 1 second-teamer Andy Pooler (3-2, 2.60), lefty Dan Hilts (3-1, 1.55) and Sam Merrill (3-1, 1.78).

“Those extra two innings make you play a lot differently,” Lower said. “You’ve got to think differently about pitching, so I like the fact we have some depth at pitching so we can work around that.”

Brewer coach David Morris also likes his team’s pitching depth for this tournament setting, as well as the overall depth throughout his 18-player roster as the Falcons seek their second straight Zone 1 tournament title.

“I think we’re sitting in a pretty good position,” Morris said. “We’ve had seven different guys with 10 or more innings of pitching, and we’ve got a lot of kids on the team with a lot of experience in big games.”

That contingent is led by third baseman Kevin McAvoy, who followed up a stellar freshman year at the University of Maine by earning Zone 1 player of the year honors by batting .512 with five home runs and 20 RBIs despite missing several games due to illness midway through the summer.

But when Brewer and Bangor qualified for the state tournament last season, it marked only the second time since 1998 that both the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds advanced.

And given the fact that Penquis – winner of eight of its last nine games – and Presque Isle are two of the hotter teams in the zone entering postseason play, nothing is certain.

“Everybody seems to have played everybody fairly equally coming down to the end,” said Waldo coach Emery Shute, the 2006 Zone 1 coach of the year. “The two top teams have gotten beat recently, and the fifth and sixth teams have pulled some games out, so it should be very interesting.”