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BY MATT DIFILIPPO Thursday, July 24, 2008

Augusta clinches top spot in league's

postseason tourney

BY MATT DIFILIPPO

Staff Writer

The Zone 2 American Legion Baseball tournament begins this afternoon, and competition for the spots went right down to the final games. Eight of the 11 teams qualified for the playoffs, and only Fairfield PAL was out of contention entering the week.

Wednesday evening's games finalized the standings, with Augusta clinching the No. 1 seed with a 14-4 victory over Lincoln County. Also in the tournament are Monmouth, Gardiner, Waterville, O'Brien Oil, Madison, Messalonskee and Amato's.

In the tournament format, the top four finishers in the regular season will advance to the double-elimination portion of the tournament. The next four teams will play nine-inning, single-elimination games this afternoon at the home of the higher seed. O'Brien Oil will host Amato's and Madison will host Messalonskee, both at 4 p.m. today.

On Friday, the tournament will move to Hippach Field at Farmington. The No. 3 seed will play the lowest remaining seed at 5:45 p.m., followed by the No. 4 team facing today's other winner.

There will be tripleheaders beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday and noon Sunday. The top two seeds will have a big advantage by having the opportunity to save their pitchers until Saturday. Augusta and Monmouth finished with identical 17-3 records, but Augusta earned the top spot by sweeping Monmouth in the season series.

Slumping Gardiner was in the hunt for the No. 2 spot, but was swept by Franklin County in a doubleheader Saturday, lost to Messalonskee on Tuesday and forfeited its game with Monmouth on Wednesday.

For other teams, pitching will get scarce. Madison and Messalonskee, for example, had a game Wednesday night and then will need to win either four straight nine-inning games today through Sunday, or four out of five nine-inning games.

O'Brien Oil, Madison and Messalonskee all finished in a tie for fifth at 9-11, but league commissioner Chad Drouin said the standings fell out the way they did because O'Brien swept Madison and Madison swept Messalonskee in the regular season.

Tickets for games will be $4 for adults and $2 for students and seniors.

• • •

The first Zone 2 All-Star Game is set for Wednesday in Augusta. Each of the 11 teams in the Zone had two players selected for the game. The game will pit players from teams from the North division (Fairfield PAL, Franklin, Madison, Messalonskee, O'Brien Oil and Waterville) against the South division (Amato's, Augusta, Gardiner, Lincoln and Monmouth).

Waterville's Steve Siviski is the North's starting pitcher, while Augusta's Jacob Beland will start on the mound for the South. Waterville has the most starters, with four (Siviski, Kyle Bishop, Josh Gaudette and Curt Chaput), while Augusta has three (Beland, Jason Burns and Mike Poulin).

The pitching and fielding substitutions have already been determined, with plans to have nine pitchers for each team throw one inning apiece.

Drouin said the game will go nine innings, with no mercy rule. The game will be declared a tie if no one is ahead after nine innings.

Matt DiFilippo -- 861-9243

mdifilippo@centralmaine.com

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