BANGOR, Maine — The Bangor High School baseball team has been a model of consistency.
It has played in seven regional championship games in eight seasons under head coach David Morris, including a current streak of three in a row. It has won four regional championships and two state Class A titles.
But the Rams have lost the last three Class A North championship games, and the 12 seniors on the team would like to rectify that this season.
“You can definitely feel it in the back of your head a little bit,” said senior pitcher-first baseman Kyle Johnson, an All-Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class A North first team selection last season. “We’ve been to three and lost three. But you can’t really think about that too much. You just try to get back there and try to win one.”
The Rams are off to a 4-0 start this season and have outscored their opponents 52-11.
They were tested by a good Messsalonskee of Oakland team on Monday, but rallied from a 4-2 deficit to win 6-4 thanks to three fifth-inning runs and an insurance run in the sixth.
“The team morale has never been higher, honestly,” Johnson said. “Starting out 4-0 helps with that, but the camaraderie we have in the clubhouse is something I wouldn’t trade for anything else in the world”.
“There’s a lot of energy in the dugout,” said senior third baseman Ethan Sproul. “We’re real close. We hang out outside of baseball. We’re all friends.”
Having 12 seniors is a definite plus, according to coach Morris and Johnson.
“You can’t replace experience,” said Morris, who is retiring after this season to move to Florida and be closer to family. “These guys have been through a lot of different things in terms of baseball. A lot of them play football, too. They know each other and all of our coaches.”
Morris has seven starters back off last year’s team that finished the regular season as the third seed in A North with an 11-5 record before reaching the regional final where it lost to top seed Mt. Ararat of Topsham, 4-3.
The Rams finished at 13-6.
“It helps having a team full of seniors who have been through it all. We’ve all been through the ups and the downs and that’s going to help us,” said Johnson. “We’ve started off hot because we’ve all been here before.”
Bangor and Mt. Ararat will square off at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Johnson and senior center fielder Gavin Glanville-True will again be among the offensive catalysts after hitting .400 a year ago.
Glanville-True, the team’s leadoff hitter, was an All-KVAC A North second team pick.
Johnson hits in the third spot in the order behind Glanville-True, and sophomore shortstop Jacoby Harvey, who hits second and is a good contact hitter.
Sproul is the cleanup hitter followed by designated hitter Lucas Rutherford, left fielder Owen Glanville-True, Gavin’s brother, catcher Zac Cota, second baseman Jonas Gilley and right fielder Trey Tennett.
All are seniors except Owen Glanville-True, who is a junior.
Gilley and Rutherford are first-year starters.
Johnson, Rutherford and senior Matt Turcotte comprise the three-man starting rotation on the mound, and junior Nick Llerena, a Hampden Academy transfer, has been a nice addition in the four spot and as a reliever.
Llerena tossed 2 ⅔ innings of one-hit, shutout relief with four strikeouts to earn the win over Messalonskee.
“He has been super for us,” said Morris. “To have him come in and do what he did is pretty big.”
Llerena said his new teammates have been very welcoming.
“Honesty, I just came here looking for some new friends and all these guys in the dugout, all these guys on the team that tried out and everything like that always make me feel better,” said Llerena.
The other seniors on the team are pitcher-first basemen Matt O’Connell and Alex Kearns, pitcher-outfielder Alex Thompson and outfielder Garrett King.
Pitcher-shortstop Jude Geagan-Chevez is a junior, and second baseman Daxton Gifford and catcher-second baseman Gavin Hughes are sophomores.
Morris said he has a deep staff with as many as 10 pitchers being able to come in and get outs with Harvey and Gavin Glanville-True being among them.
He feels he has a “really good defensive team” and said the team has shown the ability to “handle adversity pretty well so far.
“They don’t get down. And they learn from their mistakes really well. As a team, we don’t make the same mistakes over and over and over,” said Morris. “That comes with experience as well.”
He agreed with Johnson and Sproul that the team chemistry is excellent.
“This is a group that knows each other really well and they like and respect each other really well … some of those intangibles that go beyond the fundamentals of baseball,” said Morris.