The Presque Isle Patriots had to look pleasingly at their early-season American Legion Zone 1 baseball schedule, which featured six consecutive home games before they made their first trip down Route 1 and Interstate 95.

“We had a good person scheduling our games,” joked pitcher-infielder Mike Cleary.

Now comes the other side of that schedule. The Patriots traveled to Mahaney Diamond at the University of Maine in Orono on Thursday and defeated the Orono Twins 8-2, and the caravan leaves again early today for a 1 p.m. doubleheader against Trenton at George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill.

That twinbill figures to be a major test for coach Rich Parsons’ club, since Trenton, Presque Isle, Bangor and Waldo also reside near the top of the 11-team zone with just one loss each so far this season.

The Patriots are 6-1 overall but 0-1 against those other leaders, that loss a 10-2 defeat to Bangor. Yet the team’s overall success – including an average of 12.1 runs scored per game – is fueling optimism.

“We’ve been playing pretty good,” said Cleary, who doubled twice in the win over Orono. “We’ve been hitting the ball really well, so it feels like we’re kind of slumping when we only put up eight runs [against Orono], but we’ve been playing good baseball.

“We struggled with the gloves a couple of games, but they’re coming around, too.”

Presque Isle truly is Aroostook County’s team, with players from six different high schools – Presque Isle, Caribou, Houlton, Fort Kent, Central Aroostook of Mars Hill and Limestone Community School/Maine School of Science and Mathematics – on the roster.

The lineup is anchored by three Houlton products, center fielder Hunter Caron, catcher Harry Austin and Cleary, who hit 3-4-5 in the Patriots’ batting order.

Other key veterans are shortstop Logan York, first baseman-outfielder Matt McGlinn and outfielder Bennett Cassidy of Presque Isle and outfielder Pat Thibodeau of Caribou. York and McGlinn were both All-Zone 1 selections last summer as the Patriots finished with a .500 record and earned the sixth and final berth in the zone tournament.

And while that team returned nearly intact this summer, Presque Isle also has added three key contributors in pitcher Andrew York from Mars Hill and third baseman Tom Desjardins and catcher Joe Soucy from Fort Kent.

“I played with a lot of the guys a couple of years ago,” said York, who took last summer off to concentrate on basketball, as the former BDN All-Maine honoree from Central Aroostook was a redshirt freshman at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., last winter. “Coming back this year, we’ve got a lot of guys with more experience. We’ve got a pretty tough team.”

York gave the Patriots a big boost Thursday, pitching a complete-game four-hitter against Orono with 13 strikeouts.

“He’s been firing good all season,” said Cleary. “He took last year off and came back this year and during tryouts no one knew what to expect. But he came out and is just throwing the ball hard and throwing strikes.”

York (1-0) is one of five Presque Isle pitchers with wins already this summer. Cleary is 2-0, while Tyler Lamoureux of Presque Isle (1-1), Matt Enman of Limestone (1-0) and Matt Chasse of Presque Isle (1-0) also have earned victories.