One of the surprise stories in Eastern Maine baseball so far this spring has come from Penquis Valley of Milo, where the Patriots are quietly putting together one of their best seasons in generations.
Just 2-14 a year ago, Penquis is 9-1 after Monday’s 12-2 victory over Dexter and is within one victory of becoming what is believed to be the first baseball team at the school to win as many as 10 games in a season since 1979.
“The whole mindset of what Penquis baseball is supposed to be is changing,” said first-year coach Jeremy Allen. “We used to be the joke of the league, but now the kids are starting to believe in themselves.”
Whether the Patriots will be able to challenge the likes of George Stevens Academy or Stearns of Millinocket atop the Class C standings remains to be seen — Penquis’ lone loss was against Stearns, and the teams meet again May 29 in Millinocket.
But the team already has come far in a short period of time.
Consider the program is only 21-119 since the start of the 2000 season, with a 5-11 effort in 2007 the best of those nine previous years.
Then consider the fact when most teams began their preseason tryouts in March, Penquis did not yet have a coach. But Allen, a University of Maine student who is working at Brownville Elementary School while pursuing a degree in elementary education, soon took over the post, bringing with him a clear understanding of the state of the program over the last decade.
He played on an 0-16 Penquis baseball team as a freshman in 1997, but didn’t play again after the program was dropped for two years.
Allen did not stop playing sports at the school — he went on to lead the Patriots to the 2000 Class C basketball state championship and Eastern Maine titles in both 1999 and 2000.
He has combined his sport-specific knowledge with his knowledge of what it takes to win a championship in any sport to help rejuvenate the program’s psyche.
“These kids have just lacked confidence,” said Allen. “They’ve always felt like everyone felt they were horrible, so I’ve talked to them about what it takes to get to Eastern Maines. I’ve used that a time or two.”
And while there are just four seniors on this year’s roster, Allen inherited a solid nucleus of players from last year’s squad.
“I really didn’t know much about the guys coming in, except for playing pickup ball with them,” he said. “I’d never seen them play baseball before.”
The Patriots are led by senior captain Brad Brown, a four-year starter at catcher who also leads the team in batting average from the cleanup spot in the batting order.
He handles a fairly deep pitching staff led by junior righthanders Kiel Larson and Brandon Smith and sophomore righty Eddie Cobb that Allen feels is one of his team’s strengths.
“We’re deep there,” Allen said. “They’ve all got good velocity and they have decent curveballs.”
Other leading contributors include junior center fielder Jesse McLaughlin and sophomore shortstop Bryan Russell, but Allen said the bottom of the batting order routinely changes from game to game due to the quality depth on his 16-player roster.
“We’ve still been experimenting a little,” he said after Monday’s win over Dexter.
Penquis faces a challenging schedule for the rest of this week with games against Orono and Penobscot Valley of Howland, but with just four games remaining on the regular-season schedule the goals for the team already have changed.
“We set a goal at the beginning of the season to have a winning record,” said Allen. “That was a longshot, but we’ve done that. Now we’re just going out and trying to win every game.”
When a tie is a tie
Ties are a rare occurrence in high school baseball, but Mother Nature conspired with looming darkness last Thursday to produce a pair of stalemates in Eastern Maine Class B, with Old Town tying Mount Desert Island 9-9 through seven innings and John Bapst of Bangor and Mattanawcook Academy of Lincoln finishing at 8-8 through six innings.
The Maine Principals’ Association rule for such games is based on National Federation of State High School Association standards:
“A game called for darkness, weather conditions, or any other reason and is an official game (five innings or 4½ with home team ahead) if tied shall be recorded as a tie; if less than official game, it shall be replayed in its entirety.”
The only exception to that rule comes during tournament competition, when tie games must be replayed in their entirety.
Keenan new Noble AD
Presque Isle native Kyle Keenan, who has coached the Noble of North Berwick girls basketball team for the last four years, is leaving that post to become the school’s new athletic director beginning July 1.
Keenan replaces Eric Wirsing, who opted not to stay in the AD post when it was changed from part time to full time beginning with the 2009-2010 school year.
Keenan led the Noble girls basketball team to four straight postseason appearances, including a trip to the Western Maine Class A championship game in 2008.
He guided the Knights to a 52-27 record, including 15-5 last winter when the team — led by Miss Maine Basketball finalist Sloane Sorrell — reached the Western A semifinals before being ousted by eventual state champion Deering of Portland.
