PI’s York eager to showcase skills Senior All-Star game tonight at 7

If Dover-Foxcroft represents the approximate geographic center of Maine, Logan York will represent a whole lot of territory Friday night.

The Presque Isle High School standout is the only player from north of the Piscataquis County shiretown selected to participate in the 2007 Maine High School Senior All-Star Baseball Classic, which begins at 7 p.m. from Mahaney Diamond on the campus of Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

“It surprised me a little bit when my coach told me I made the team,” said York.

Yet a look at the statistics says the Husson College-bound York surely belongs, as he batted over .500 this spring while batting leadoff for a young Presque Isle team that finished out of the Eastern Maine Class B playoff picture with a 5-11 record.

A three-year starter at shortstop for the Wildcats, York was named to both the All-Penobscot Valley Conference Class B first team as well as the All-Aroostook County Classes B-C team this spring. He hopes to display those skills Friday night against the best from the rest of the state.

“I feel pretty good about it,” said York, also a soccer and basketball standout for Presque Isle. “I just want to show everybody I can play.”

This marks the first time the game has not been played at the University of Maine in Orono, as organizers seek additional exposure for the contest in southern Maine while staying true to the memory of the game’s founder, Larry Mahaney, a noted philanthropist and former board chairman and chief executive officier of Webber Energy Fuels, who died in 2006.

As a result, the game will rotate in the coming years between Mahaney Diamond at Saint Joseph’s and Mahaney Diamond at the University of Maine.

This year’s 20-player East roster includes 12 Class A representatives, seven players from Class B programs and one player from a Class C school, Josh Nickerson of Searsport.

Joining Nickerson and York on the East squad are Class A players Jim Nicknair of Brewer, Gordon Webb, Alex Gallant and Tom Crews, all of Bangor; Jarrett Lukas and Tyler Honey of Old Town, Ben Goodall and Ethan Sutton of Oxford Hills of South Paris, Sean McNally of Gardiner and Josh Clark and Dylan Chandler, both of Brunswick.

Other Class B players are Chris Maguire and Teddy Cooke of Bucksport, Nick Swanson of Mount Desert Island, Nick Lancisi of Foxcroft Academy and Steve Siviski and Brendan Weed of Winslow.

The West team is led by pitchers Josh Jillson of Oak Hill of Sabattus, Caleb Jordan of Greely of Cumberland Center and Ben Ives of Deering of Portland, and pitcher-first baseman Joe Douglass of Poland.

The 16th annual Dr. John Winkin Mr. Baseball Award will be presented just before the game to the state’s top senior high school baseball player. Douglass, Jillson, Lukas and Webb are finalists for the award.