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The state American Legion baseball tournament has a rich tradition.
Alfred Post 134 won the first title back in 1928, and a new champion has been crowned each year since then – save for the war years of 1942 through 1945, when the tournament was not held.
Recent years have seen southern Maine teams dominate the event, with two Portland-based Zone 4 programs, Andrews Post and Nova Seafood, winning every title since Zone 1’s Brewer won back-to-back crowns in 1996 and ’97.
A modern-day Zone 3 program has not won a state championship since New Auburn in 1990, and teams in today’s Zone 2 have come up empty for the last 35 years, since Gardiner in 1971.
The 2007 state tournament, which begins today at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, has its own Zone 4 favorite in 20-5 Nova Seafood. Winner of the 2004 national Legion championship, Nova Seafood is making its ninth state tournament appearance in the last 10 years and is made up primarily of players from this year’s state Class A champion Deering High School team.
But there are plenty of challengers hoping for the chance to knock off coach Mike D’Andrea’s club, beginning with opening-day opponent Bangor, which meets Nova Seafood at 1 p.m.
The 21-5 Comrades, who finished as this summer’s Zone 1 runner-up, feature most of the players who battled Deering in this year’s high school final. They also have several other returnees from the team that won the 2006 Class A crown during the high school season before going on to finish 1-2 in last summer’s state Legion tournament.
Five Comrades, catcher Gordon Webb, pitcher-shortstop Ian Edwards, pitcher Neal Russell, third baseman Shane Walton and outfielder Tom Crews, earned first-team All-Zone 1 honors this summer.
And while two-time defending state Legion champion Andrews Post is not back in the eight-team field – having been ousted in the Zone 4 playoffs – 2006 state runner-up Brewer is back.
The Falcons (16-9) used a strong late-season run to win their third straight zone title and are 9-2 in their last 11 games.
Brewer has a different look from last year, particularly with state tourney co-MVP Kevin McAvoy now in the Cape Cod League. But the Falcons have a fairly deep pitching staff led by Greg Higgins, Jim Nicknair and Chris Maguire to lead their tournament effort, which begins at 4:30 p.m. against Zone 4 runner-up Fayette-Staples of Saco.
Fayette-Staples (20-6) is made up of players from Thornton Academy of Saco, which advanced to the Western Maine Class A semifinals during the high school season.
Another favorite to work its way deep into the tournament is undefeated Zone 2 champion Monmouth (23-0), which has the majority of its roster back from last summer’s squad that finished 2-2 at the state tournament.
Monmouth, which opens Saturday against Zone 3 runner-up Bessey Motors of South Paris (16-7) in the 10 a.m. tournament opener, is led by outfielder Tavis Hasenfus, who batted .611 in last year’s state tournament to share co-MVP honors with McAvoy.
Other key returning players are infielder Ethan Guerrette, the Zone 2 player of the year, and All-Zone 2 outfielder Sean Holbrook, pitchers Justin Denbow and Mike Eaton, and utility player Josh Jillson.
Bessey Motors, which features players from Oxford Hills High School in South Paris, used two ninth-inning rallies in its zone tournament to advance to the states.
Saturday’s final game pits Zone 3 champion New Auburn (16-4) against Zone 2 runner-up Madison (16-7) at 7:30 p.m. New Auburn, back in the tournament for the second straight year, features players from Edward Little and St. Dominic high schools, while Madison consists largely of Skowhegan Area High School products, including pitchers Mike LaCasse and Cody Vigue.
The double-elimination tournament continues through Wednesday, with the winner advancing to the Northeast Regional on Aug. 16-20 at Burlington, Vt.
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