When Nick Perfitt leaves home Saturday to play in the opening round of the American Legion baseball state tournament, he faces one of the longer road trips of any of the participants from around Maine.
And he plays for one of the home teams.
The recent Houlton High School graduate has made the 120-mile trip down Interstate 95 throughout the summer to continue his baseball career with Quirk Motor City, one of three Zone 1 Legion programs in Greater Bangor, along with Bangor Coffee News and R.H. Foster of Hampden, that will be in the eight-team state tournament field.
Perfitt has made all of his team’s 20 games and missed just one practice to date, and he plans to make the daily runs from Houlton to Bangor — about 1 hour, 45 minutes one way — for as long as his team stays alive in the double-elimination state tourney that runs through next Wednesday at Husson University in Bangor.
Quirk Motor City, runner-up to Bangor Coffee News in the Zone 1 tournament, opens state tournament play at 10 a.m. Saturday against Zone 3 (southern Maine) runner-up Coastal Landscape of Portland.
“It’s pretty crazy,” said Perfitt, who estimates he has traveled several thousand miles this summer to pursue his passion for baseball. “We’ve basically played three days a week in Bangor, and then last week I came down five or six times because we were practicing for the (zone) tournament.”
Perfitt admits that having grandparents Wayne and Chris Lee or parents Ervin and Paula Perfitt do most of the driving has made life on the road easier — particularly on days when he heads south after working his summer job at the Houlton Recreation Department.
“Most of the time when I’m with my family I pretty much sleep,” he said. “It’s not a bad ride.”
Long trips for athletic competition are nothing new for Aroostook County youngsters.
Perfitt routinely traveled south to play basketball during his middle-school years and was one of three Houlton teens to play American Legion baseball for Quirk Motor City two summers ago along with Cam Graham and Billy Phillips.
Quirk Motor City did not field a team last summer, so while Graham switched Legion allegiances and played for Bangor Coffee News, Perfitt stayed home to play for the Houlton Senior League team, which played games as far away as the Pittsfield-Newport area as part of Maine District 3.
When Quirk Motor City returned to Legion play this summer, Perfitt eagerly rejoined the team, and this week was named to the All-Zone I second team for his efforts after batting .355 with a team-high 22 hits and a .425 on-base percentage for coach Cam Archer’s club.
“It’s been pretty good,” he said. “It feels good to be able to play against pretty good competition. You’re playing against older kids, a lot of people are playing in college, including most of the best players on our team.”
Perfitt’s Legion experience also proved beneficial throughout his career at Houlton High School.
The Shiretowners reached the Class C North final during his sophomore year, then advanced to the semifinals in 2017 before breaking through this June to capture their first regional championship since 1983 — when Houlton was in Class A.
Perfitt, a right-hander, earned All-Penobscot Valley Conference honors this spring after compiling a 5-1 regular-season record, and he went on to finish 6-2 after throwing a complete-game five-hitter in the Class C state championship game, a 2-1 loss to Hall-Dale of Farmingdale.
“My sophomore year I played Legion against a lot of older kids since I was one of the younger guys,” said Perfitt, who hopes to continue his baseball career when he attends Husson University beginning this fall. “I faced pretty good pitching, and I pitched that year against the older kids, too, so once I went back to high school and played against kids more my age and more my skill level, I had a lot more confidence.”
Perfitt looks forward to the state Legion tournament and facing some of Maine’s traditionally strong programs at both the high school and Legion levels such as Bangor Coffee News and R.H. Foster-Hampden, Bessey Motors of South Paris (Oxford Hills High School), Pastime of Lewiston, Coastal Landscape (Cheverus High School) and Yankee Ford of South Portland.
So what if it requires a few more road trips.
“Sometimes it’s hard to go that far for a home game,” he said, “but once you get down there and start playing it’s a lot of fun.”
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