BANGOR, Maine — It’s likely more than sheer coincidence that the last two teams to represent host Maine District 3 in the Senior League World Series both won high school state titles on Saturday.
Bangor High School, which defeated Falmouth 5-0 to secure its third consecutive Class A state championship, featured players who went 4-0 in pool play and advanced to the 2014 Senior League World Series semifinals before being ousted by eventual tournament champion West University Little League of Houston, Texas.
Old Town High School, which won its first state crown with a 12-2 win over Freeport in the Class B game, was made up of players that also won last year’s District 3 crown and went on to reach the Senior League World Series semifinals before concluding its first appearance at the Little League baseball world championships for players ages 13-16 with a 2-2 record.
“It felt really good to play here and be here during the Senior League World Series,” said T.J. Crawford, the starting center fielder for both Old Town’s 2015 Senior League World Series team as well as the Old Town High School team that won 2016 Class B North and state championship games on the same field where the Senior League World Series has been held since 2002 — Mansfield Stadium.
“I feel with the games we played here for school ball, the Senior League World Series really prepared us for those even more. We had a huge crowd here for the Senior League World Series last summer, and I felt that made us more comfortable as a team and as a community to travel back here and play [high school regional and state finals].”
Crawford and Old Town teammates Dana Ouellette and Austin Sheehan on Monday returned to the scene of their high school championship games and Senior League World Series appearance to help tournament director Mike Brooker conduct a blind draw for this year’s Senior League World Series, which runs from July 31 through Aug. 6.
They did no favors for the team that will represent Maine District 3 this year.
In 2015, Old Town was one of two teams to draw first-round byes in what is now a modified double-elimination format. This year, ineligible for a bye until each of the 10 regions in the tournament has had that chance, the Maine District 3 champion will open play on July 31 against the U.S. Southwest, traditionally one of the strongest regions in the field and home to the two-time defending Senior League World Series title holders from Houston, Texas.
Brooker noted that as many as nine players from the 2015 Senior League World Series champion West University Little League team are likely to join NCAA Division I baseball program soon, including two who already have accepted scholarships from Baylor and Texas A&M and two others who have verbally committed to Vanderbilt and Texas, respectively.
“When you have nine kids off one Senior League team that are going to play Division I baseball, that speaks volumes,” he said.
Other teams in Maine District 3’s bracket will represent the U.S. West, East and Southeast, and the other five-team bracket will have an international flair with Asia-Pacific, Europe-Africa, Latin America and Canada joining the U.S. Central.
“It’s certainly a lot different for the local team, a much tougher bracket draw,” said Brooker. “When you do things completely random, it’s funny how things turn out. Last year we had the five historically toughest regions in one bracket, and the others in the other bracket.
“This year all the international teams ended up in one bracket along with [U.S.] Central. It’s completely random. As I said last year, thank God it’s on film, but it’s amazing how it worked out.”
One change in the format this year will have the last team in each division to be knocked into the loser’s bracket cross over to the opposite bracket to play in the final round of double-elimination play.
That should allow some teams to play a greater variety of opponents than a year ago when some teams, including Maine District 3, played just two other teams during their Senior League World Series runs.
“Some of the feedback we received after last year was that teams weren’t playing enough other teams, they wanted to play other teams,” Brooker said. “Last year the Maine team played Central and Asia Pacific and beat Asia-Pac twice and lost to Central twice. The Southeast team last year lost twice to the Southwest, and there were a couple of other teams that only played two different teams.
“We felt this way would provide an opportunity for teams to play a different opponent, and also if the brackets through random draw were skewed one way or the other, then it would provide an opportunity for a team out of a tougher bracket to cross over and then potentially get back into the championship game.”
This year’s world championship game is scheduled for 2:07 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, and will be televised live on ESPN. That represents a change from recent years when the game was on ESPN2, and before that when it was aired live on ESPNU.
“Being on ESPN as opposed to ESPNU certainly is a big step, as opposed to ESPN2 which probably is not quite as much of a change because most cable companies that offer ESPN also have ESPN2 in the same package and they’re available in 140 million homes,” Brooker said.
“It does change the perception, though, because now you’re playing on ESPN. There’s no qualifying number or letter at the end,” he added.
