Just eight teams remain alive for Eastern Maine baseball championships, with regional finals scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Top-ranked Messalonskee of Oakland will play No. 3 Cony of Augusta for the Class A championship at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday at Morton Field in Augusta, while the remainder of the title games are scheduled for Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.
No. 3 Shead of Eastport will face No. 4 Deer Isle-Stonington in the Class D matchup at 7 p.m. Tuesday, preceded at 3 p.m. by the Class B game between No. 1 Gardiner and No. 3 Waterville.
On Wednesday, top-seeded George Stevens Academy will face No. 7 Orono in the Class C final at 7 p.m.
Winners advance to Saturday’s state championship games, with Class A to be played in Augusta, Classes B and D at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish, and Class C at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.
Class A: A Messalonskee team seeking its first regional title squares off against a tradition-rich Cony program that is after its first EM championship since winning back-to-back crowns in 1998 and 1999.
Both teams enter the contest with 14-4 records. Messalonskee is coming off a 4-3 semifinal win over No. 4 Bangor after stopping No 8 Oxford Hills of South Paris 13-3 in the quarterfinals. Cony earned a 7-4 semifinal win at No. 2 Edward Little of Auburn after outlasting defending regional champion Brewer 4-3 in an 11-inning quarterfinal.
The teams met once during the regular season, with Cony jumping out to an early lead and defeating Messalonskee 9-2 in a mutual regular-season finale on June 2.
Class B: Gardiner (16-2) has picked up where it left off last postseason, when it outscored four opponents by a combined 40-4 en route to its first state championship in 61 years.
So far this spring, coach Jim Palmer’s club has scored two postseason shutouts, 7-0 over No. 4 Bucksport in Saturday’s semifinals after an 8-0 quarterfinal victory over No. 8 Caribou.
Waterville (16-3) is coming off an 8-4 semifinal win at Ellsworth, a game that might have been played at Waterville except that the teams ended in an exact tie for second place in the Heal point tournament index — despite not having a single common regular-season opponent — and Ellsworth won a coin flip to gain the second seed and a preliminary-round bye.
Waterville opened its playoff run with a 6-1 victory over No. 14 Winslow in the prelims, then topped No. 11 Medomak Valley of Waldoboro in the quarterfinals.
Waterville already owns a 16-6 win over Gardiner on April 24, which was Waterville’s second game of the season and Gardiner’s first.
Gardiner (16-2) gained a measure of revenge by edging Waterville 5-4 in eight innings on June 6 to win the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship for the third straight year.
Class C: George Stevens Academy (15-3) has been one of the most consistent contenders in the region throughout the decade, but is after its first EM title since winning four in a row between 2002 and 2005.
Coach Dan Kane’s club is undefeated against Class C competition this spring, losing only to Class B Mount Desert Island (twice) and Bucksport.
The Eagles have not yet allowed a run in postseason play, shutting out No. 9 Narraguagus of Harrington 8-0 in the quarterfinals and No. 5 Madawaska 12-0 in the semifinals as senior righthander Peter Dickinson pitched a five-inning no-hitter.
No. 7 Orono (11-8) is the lowest seed to advance to a regional final in Eastern Maine. Coach Don Joseph’s club got off to a 1-4 start this spring but has rebounded with a solid effort during the second half of the regular season.
The Red Riots, who last won regional and state championships while competing in Class B in 1994, then defeated No. 10 Fort Kent 16-6 in the preliminary round and upended No. 2 Stearns of Millinocket 8-7 in the quarterfinals before overwhelming No. 3 Calais 17-0 in the semifinals.
George Stevens has defeated Orono twice this season, 11-0 at Blue Hill in early May and 3-2 at Orono on May 18.
Class D: Deer Isle-Stonington is in search of its third Eastern Maine title in five years against a familiar postseason foe in Shead.
When the Mariners won state titles in both 2005 and 2007, coach Darren Eaton’s club edged the Tigers in tightly contested regional semifinals each year, 4-2 in 2005 and 3-1 in 2007.
And while coach Ron Sullivan’s Shead team has yet to win an EM crowns, they have frequently been in the postseason mix, including a trip to the EM final in 2004.
Shead (14-3) advanced to this year’s final by topping No. 11 Woodland 5-1 in the quarterfinals and then trekking to Mars Hill to edge No. 2 Central Aroostook 5-4 in the semifinals.
Deer Isle-Stonington (14-4) defeated No. 5 Ashland 12-2 in the quarters before ousting top-ranked and defending Eastern Maine champion Katahdin of Stacyville 3-1 in the semifinals.
Shead and Deer Isle-Stonington did not meet during the regular season.
