Rams’ Edwards, Tigers’ Stilphen among finalists

Ian Edwards of Bangor and Kyle Stilphen of Gardiner are among four finalists for the 2008 Dr. John Winkin Award symbolic of the state’s Mr. Baseball.

That award will be presented at approximately 6 p.m. on June 27, just before the 17th annual Larry Mahaney Baseball Classic to be played at the Winkin Baseball Complex on the campus of Husson College in Bangor.

Edwards, a pitcher-first baseman, helped Bangor win the 2006 Class A state championship and a second straight Eastern Maine Class A crown in 2007, when he was named the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A player of the year.

This spring Edwards anchored the Rams pitching staff and led the team in batting average as Bangor earned the No. 3 seed in the final Eastern A Heal point ratings and a berth in the regional playoffs.

Stilphen, a shortstop and pitcher, led Gardiner to a berth in Wednesday night’s Eastern Maine Class B championship game. He batted over .500 for the Tigers during the regular season and did not make an error while playing shortstop, his primary position.

The University of Maine-bound Stilphen already has been named the state’s 2008 Gatorade Maine baseball player of the year.

Edwards and Stilphen are joined as finalists by Western Maine representatives Demitrios Gatzogiannis, a pitcher-first baseman from Wells, and Jon Smith, a pitcher-shortstop from Dirigo of Dixfield.

The Larry Mahaney Baseball Classic is the new name of the Maine Senior High School Baseball Classic, as game officials have decided to rename the annual clash of the state’s top senior players from Eastern and Western Maine in honor of its founder, a noted Maine philanthropist and former board chairman and chief executive officer of Webber Energy Fuels. He died in 2006.

According to longtime event coordinator Ray Cota, Mahaney formed a group of advisers in 1992 to promote his idea of honoring high school baseball players in the state with a showcase similar to the Maine Shrine Lobster Bowl Classic for football and McDonald’s East-West Senior All-Star Basketball Games.

In addition to the name change, organization and coordination of the Larry Mahaney Baseball Classic will shift from Cota to the Maine Baseball Coaches Association and the Frozen Ropes Baseball and Softball Training Center.

“It’s a lot easier for us from an administrative perspective,” said Mike Coutts, a former University of Maine baseball standout who owns the Frozen Ropes facility in Portland and is president of the MBCA. “We’ve got access to all the coaches through e-mails and contact numbers, so it’s pretty easy for us to sit down with all the coaches in the state.”

Frozen Ropes and the MBCA also sponsor the Maine vs. New Hampshire Senior All-Star Game and the Maine Underclass All-Star Game, which will be held Monday at the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.

The third annual Maine-New Hampshire game is scheduled for a noon start, followed at 4 p.m. by the Maine Underclass All-Star Game.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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