The Searsport High School baseball team waited 31 years between state titles before winning it all at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish last June.

But this year’s squad, featuring seven starters back from the 2006 Class C state championship edition, is geared toward making sure the next crown comes much sooner – perhaps in a matter of months, rather than years.

“There’s a lot of pride in this group,” said fourth-year Vikings’ head coach Dave Pepin. “They were that way even when we lost in the Eastern Maine championship game the two years before last year.

“But it’s an unbelievable group as far as hunger and desire goes.”

Those attributes were evident as pitchers and catchers reported for their first practices a week ago, and as the entire roster turned out for its first workout Monday.

“We really worked a lot on conditioning,” said Pepin, “not so much just for conditioning but to get an understanding that it’s going to take a lot of hard work to get back to that point again this year. We’ve got to work harder than ever.”

Searsport is coming off a 15-5 season in 2005-06, an effort capped off by a stellar postseason in which the Vikings allowed just three runs in four games.

The Vikings edged Orono 3-1 in their quarterfinal, then ended George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill’s four-year run as Eastern Maine champion in the semifinals, shutting out the team that had eliminated them in the 2004 and 2005 EM championship games.

Searsport shut out Houlton to win its first regional crown since 1999 before upending 2005 Class C champion St. Dominic of Auburn 5-2 to win the school’s first state title in baseball since 1975.

Only two players graduated from that team in pitcher-shortstop Matt Nickerson – now at the University of Southern Maine – and first baseman Sean Johnson. They both will be hard to replace, but Searsport does have a veteran cast to attempt that task.

Junior Nate Adams is the top returning pitcher, while Casey Ashey is a third-year starter behind the plate. Tom Cameron, the designated hitter a year ago, will start at first base, while Caleb Ashey and Josh Nickerson will handle shortstop and third base, respectively. Caleb Ashey played short when Matt Nickerson pitched last year, while Josh Nickerson is back at third and figures to be the No. 2 starter.

The Vikings’ outfield returns intact, with senior center fielder Seth Gallant flanked by senior left fielder Kyle Ritchie and junior right fielder Bob Wilson.

“The big question may be scoring runs,” said Pepin, whose team batted .288 a year ago. “We’ve always thrown the ball well and played well defensively. We’ve been pretty fundamentally sharp the last three years.”

The Vikings have a challenging regular-season schedule, including two games each with defending Eastern B champion Bucksport, GSA, Orono, Central of Corinth and Class D power Deer Isle-Stonington – all teams that figure to be in the postseason hunt again this spring.

A strong effort against those teams may lead Searsport to something it has yet to achieve during its recent run – a home game in the regional semifinals. The Vikings have been seeded seventh, third and fourth in Eastern C the last three seasons, meaning their semifinal games have been away from home on the road to the Eastern Maine final at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.

“We’ve got a tough schedule, but the seniors have played for a championship every year they’ve been here,” said Pepin, whose team opens its regular season April 20 at home against Orono. “They don’t want to go out without playing in a fourth one.”

State finals set for June 16

With high school baseball full-team practices in their first week and snow still covering most fields in Eastern Maine, it’s still not too early to check out some dates to remember at the end of the season.

State championship games in all four classes are scheduled for Saturday, June 16. The Class A final will be held at 4 p.m. at Morton Field in Augusta, while the Class B matchup is set for 5 p.m. at Saint Joseph’s College. The Class C title game will begin at 11 a.m. at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor, while the Class D final is slated for a noon first pitch at Saint Joseph’s.

Eastern Maine championship games for Class B and Class D will be held Tuesday, June 12, at Mansfield Stadium, the Class D game at 3 p.m. and the Class B game at 7 p.m. The finals for Class A and Class C will be held Wednesday, June 13, with the Class A game beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Morton Field and the Class C game at 7 p.m. at Mansfield Stadium.

The first date for countable games this season is Thursday, April 12, according to the Maine Principals’ Association baseball bulletin, but most teams won’t attempt to play their first games until the following week.

Wednesday, May 30, marks the last day for countable games, followed by regional preliminary-round games on Tuesday, June 5. Regional quarterfinals are set for Thursday, June 7, with semifinals to follow on Saturday, June 9.

Plunkett, Steinbach to join Hall

Former New England Patriots and Oakland Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett and ex-Oakland A’s and Minnesota Twins catcher Terry Steinbach head up the class of 2007 for the National High School Hall of Fame.

Plunkett, Steinbach and 10 other people will be inducted in the National Federation of State High School Associations National High School Hall of Fame on July 4 at the Desert Springs Marriott Hotel in Palm Desert, Calif.

Plunkett starred in baseball, wrestling and football at James Lick High in San Jose, Calif. He was undefeated in wrestling during his senior season and won a California Interscholastic Federation section title. He led his football team to a 9-0 mark as a senior, passing for 1,200 yards and 17 touchdowns.

He went on to win the Heisman Trophy at Stanford University before being a first-round draft pick of the Patriots. His best days in the NFL came with the Raiders, as he led them to victories in the 1981 and 1984 Super Bowls.

Steinbach was an ice hockey and baseball standout at New Ulm (Minn.) High. He set school records for most career goals in ice hockey and most career home runs in baseball. He was the co-Big Ten Conference baseball player of the year at the University of Minnesota in 1983. He played with the A’s for 11 years, including the 1989 World Series championship team, and finished his career with the Twins.

Other former athletes selected for the 2007 class are Clyde Duncan, a track and field standout at Des Moines (Iowa) North High in the early 1960s who is currently the track and field coach at Texas Southern University; Jim Johnson, the most prolific scorer in high school ice hockey from Cranbrook High in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.; and Charlie Wedemeyer, considered one of the greatest athletes in Hawaii history after excelling in football, baseball and basketball at Punahou High in Honolulu during the 1960s.