Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium is going to be inundated with some high-level baseball tournaments over the next five weekends.
Three teams will vie for the State Junior League (ages 13-14) championship on Saturday and Sunday. Coastal from Blue Hill will take on Hermon at 11 a.m. on Saturday; Coastal will then play Gray-New Gloucester/Raymond at 2 p.m. and Hermon will face Gray-New Gloucester/Raymond at 5 p.m..
The top two teams will advance to Sunday’s championship round which will have the first game at 2 p.m. and, if necessary, a game at 5 p.m.
If all three teams are 1-1 after Saturday, the tiebreaker will be runs allowed divided by defensive innings played. If one team is 2-0 and another is 1-1 after Saturday, the 1-1 team will have to beat the 2-0 team twice.
The Senior League Northeast Regional tourney (ages 13-16) will be held on July 18-23 with eight state champions involved in a double-elimination format. The teams will be from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
Maine does not have any Senior League teams.
Mansfield Stadium hosted the Senior League World Series from 2002-16 before the decision was made to move it to Easley, South Carolina due, primarily, to the fact it was easier to travel to than Bangor.
However, Bangor was awarded the Northeast Regional in 2019 and, after the Covid-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 and ‘21 tournaments, it resumed in 2022.
The State Senior American Legion tournament (14-19 year-olds) will be held on July 27-31 and the State Junior American Legion tourney (13-17 year-olds) will follow on Aug. 3-6.
Both will be eight-team double-elimination tournaments.
The final tourney will be the Junior American Northeast Regional on August 9-11. There will be eight teams there including a host team, the Maine state champion and winners from six other states. It is a single-elimination tourney with consolation games.
Mike Brooker, the tournament director for the Senior League Northeast Regional who was also in charge of the Senior League World Series, said the three Northeast Regionals have gone “pretty smoothly” even though there aren’t any Maine teams involved.
“People enjoy coming up to Maine. The weather is good and you won’t find a better facility. And I’ve been to a lot of upper-level tournaments in other places,” said Brooker.
Brooker said there is a new top-notch facility in DuBois, Pa. but that is the only one that ranks up there with Mansfield Stadium.
He said they have been able to break even on the event even without an in-state team because Little League Baseball and Softball pays them a $5,000 stipend to cover the cost and they have been able to cover the rest of the expenses through souvenir sales and gate receipts.
Concession sales go to the stadium.
The teams cover their travel expenses, hotel rooms and meals.
Brooker said he and his staff pay for the umpires’ lodging and their uniforms as well as the banquet on the night before the tournament.
Brooker said the $5,000 stipend “barely covers” the banquet but the souvenir sales and gate receipts cover the other expenses.
There are five teams that have already booked their berths into the Senior League Regional: Auburn, Mass.; Berlin, Maryland; Meriden, Connecticut; Camden, Delaware and Massapequa Park, N.Y.
Scott Bishop, the chairman of the State American Legion Baseball committee, said he was grateful to Brooker and the Mansfield Stadium crew for hosting the three American Legion tournaments.
“Mansfield has been amazing with accommodating the number of teams and games that they are putting through there,” said Bishop. “And also being available to us for all three of these tournaments.”
He said he was also thankful for Hammond Lumber for being their primary sponsor.
Trenton is the defending State Senior and Junior American Legion champions after Hampden teams won both in 2022.
There are 12 Senior American Legion teams in the state, five in the north and seven in the south, and the top four from each region will qualify.
All eight Junior Legion teams will be included in the state tournament.
