Less than 72 hours after the high school baseball season concludes, the American Legion Zone 1 campaign will be in full swing.

Five games are on Tuesday’s opening-night schedule, one involving the zone’s newest team as Motor City of Bangor will host the defending zone champion Brewer Falcons in a 7:30 p.m. start at the Winkin Baseball Complex on the Husson College campus.

“We decided that Bangor has such a big area with so much talent that it was time for a second Bangor American Legion team,” said Motor City coach Shane Graham, who also coaches John Bapst of Bangor during the high school season.

“We felt there was a need in the community, and we wanted to create an opportunity for more kids to be able to play summer baseball at a high level.”

John Bapst and Bangor Christian will be the base high schools for the Motor City team, whose primary sponsor is the Quirk family-owned Motor City automobile franchise. The team, which is affiliated with American Legion Post 211 of Glenburn, will play all of its home games at Husson College.

“We’re a first-year team and we want to be competitive,” said Graham, who will be assisted in the Motor City dugout by Mike Smith, Jamie Gallant, and Tyler Wilson. “But at the same time, we’re trying to build a program for the future. Right now we have a large group from the junior and sophomore classes, where usually Legion teams are heavily dependent on guys who have been in the program for years.”

The addition of Motor City gives Zone 1 11 teams, meaning each team will play a 20-game home-and-home schedule against all of the other teams in the zone, according to Zone 1 commissioner Dave Paul.

In addition, rather than the two-division format used in recent years, Zone 1 now will be comprised of one 11-team zone, with the top six teams still advancing to the Zone 1 tournament to be held at Husson College July 27-30.

The top two finishers in the Zone 1 tournament will move on to the state tournament, which will be held at Mahaney Diamond on the campus of Saint Joseph’s College in Standish Aug. 4-8.

Brewer and Bangor, which represented the zone at the state tournament last summer, figure to be among the favorites again this year. Brewer, which draws primarily from Eastern A finalist Brewer High School and Eastern B finalist Bucksport, won both the Zone 1 regular-season and tournament championships last year and went on to become the first non-Zone 4 (Portland area) team to advance to the championship round of the state tournament since 2002.

The Falcons placed second to Andrews Post of Portland at the 2006 state tournament and finished with a 26-5 record.

Bangor, consisting predominantly of players from the Bangor High School program that won the 2006 Class A state championship and will face Deering of Portland for the 2007 crown Saturday, was the Zone 1 regular-season and tournament runner-up last summer and finished with a 22-8 record.

Other teams vying to earn a trip to the zone tournament are the Orono Twins, Hampden River Dogs, Trenton Acadians, Presque Isle Patriots, Penquis Navigators, Lincoln Lumber, Waldo Wildcats, and Calais Suns.

One coaching change in Zone 1 has Richard Parsons taking over at Presque Isle. He replaces his son, Chris, who was unable to coach this summer due to an educational commitment.

Falcons to host 8-team tourney

A break in the American Legion Zone 1 schedule around Independence Day will enable the Brewer Falcons to host an eight-team weekend tournament featuring entries from around the state and beyond.

The field involves Brewer, Bangor, and Orono from Zone 1, Franklin County and Monmouth from Zone 2, Libbey-Mitchell Post (Scarborough) and Cheverus from Zone 4, and a New Hampshire team based in Portsmouth. Games will be played at Heddericg Field in Brewer and Mansfield Stadium in Bangor with the tournament getting under way at 7 p.m. June 29 at Heddericg Field when Brewer plays New Hampshire.

That opener is followed by four games on June 30, eight games on July 1, and four games on July 2.

In addition, one Zone 1 regular season game will be played within the confines of the tournament, that at 7 p.m. June 30 when Brewer hosts Old Town at Heddericg Field.