There is going to be a little bit less pressure on the University of Maine and the other America East baseball teams this season.
That’s because the conference has adopted a new postseason tournament format that will include all six eligible teams.
The University of Maine, Stony Brook, Maryland Baltimore County, Hartford, Albany and Binghamton will compete in the America East Baseball Championship May 25-28 at LeLacheur Park, in Lowell, Massachusetts, home of a Boston Red Sox Class A affiliate, the Lowell Spinners.
UMaine coach Steve Trimper said America East coaches were intent on finding a way to better reward the regular-season champion for its efforts over the 24-game season while affording some latitude to teams that might have been adversely affected by the unbalanced conference schedule.
“From a coaching perspective, the four-team conference championship setup that we’ve had does not have a distinct advantage for one of those four teams,” Trimper said.
Previously, the only benefits for the regular-season winner were a trophy and the right to choose the game time and serve as the “home” team for its first-round contest.
The new arrangement, a six-team, double-elimination format, will provide first-round byes for the conference regular-season champion and runner-up. The Nos. 3 and 6 and Nos. 4 and 5 teams will square off in the first round, with the Nos. 1 and 2 ballclubs awaiting their foes for second-round action on Day 2.
“The dynamic behind this was to try to put the team that earns the highest respect in regular-season success in a better-advantaged position to also go to a [NCAA] regional [by improving its chance to winning the America East tournament],” Trimper said.
The top two postseason seeds will benefit in the tournament as the other four teams are likely to have to expend their best pitcher in the the first round. That helps the regular-season champ and runner-up have a more advantageous matchup on the second day by being able to utilize its top starting pitcher in addition to being more well-rested.
Teams coming out of the Nos. 3-6 positions also are likely to have to demonstrate considerable pitching depth to survive the extra first-round game.
The seven-team America East also conducts an unbalanced regular-season schedule of 24 games. Teams play four of the six other schools once apiece, either home or away, then face two of the other squads twice each, home and away, for a total of six games.
That means that if a team’s schedule happened to include six games against the two weakest programs in a given season, it would have an advantage in terms of qualifying for the tournament and receiving a higher seed.
Including all six teams helps reduce that dynamic somewhat.
The new tourney format falls more in line with what’s going on in Division I baseball, according to Trimper.
“Most of the conferences in the country do exactly what we’re doing,” he said. “We’re one of the few conferences that had still kept the concept of a four-team tournament.”
Trimper pointed out that during the last 10 seasons, the America East regular-season champion had only claimed the tournament title on three occasions — securing the league’s bid in the NCAA tournament.
Binghamton and Stony Brook each won three America East crowns in that span. UMaine owns two (2006 and 2011).
Trimper compared the setup to the major league’s postseason that includes wildcard games and to the NFL, which awards first-round playoff byes as incentive to the divisional winners.
UMass Lowell, which is going through its four-year transition to Division I athletics, is not eligible for postseason play or conference tournaments until 2017-2018. However, the America East tournament will be contested on the River Hawks’ home field for the third time as part of a four-year arrangement.
The Black Bears play their home opener against Binghamton in a doubleheader at 1 p.m. Saturday, followed by one game at 1 p.m. Sunday.