Dominant hitting powered Trenton to improbable American Legion regional title
After winning the program’s first-ever State Senior American Legion Baseball championship, Trenton Acadians center fielder-pitcher Hunter Curtis admitted that the team’s expectations for the tournament “weren’t extremely high.”
But five games and four wins later at the eight-team, double-elimination Northeast Regional Tournament at Fitton Field in Worcester, Massachusetts, the Acadians became just the third team from the state to win a Northeast Regional, joining Portland-based Nova Seafood and the Andrews Post.
“It hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s wild,” said Curtis, who pitched a three-hit, complete game in the 6-1 championship game win over Nashua, New Hampshire, on Sunday.
“We just went with the flow. Everything went our way,” Curtis added.
That offensive balance was a common theme for the Acadians during the tournament, which had a .299 batting average throughout. Eight of the nine regulars had at least four hits in the tourney led by second baseman-left fielder Joey Wellman-Clouse, shortstop-pitcher Peter Keblinsky and second baseman-shortstop Colin Sullivan.
The Acadians trailed in their first three victories, spotting Nashua a 1-0 lead in their opener before coming back to win 3-1, then falling behind Franklin, Massachusetts, 6-0 before rallying for a 14-8 triumph, and lastly trailing Cumberland, Rhode Island, 3-0 after five innings before tying it with a run in the sixth and two in the seventh and winning it 7-3 with four runs in the eighth.
Curtis, Husson University of Bangor’s right fielder and North Atlantic Conference Rookie of the Year this past spring, said that is nothing new to the Ellsworth High School players who make up a majority of the roster, with the others coming from Mount Desert Island High in Bar Harbor and George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill.
“This was like our high school team two years ago. We were the cardiac kids,” said Curtis, referring to Ellsworth High School’s Class B state championship run in 2022 when it came from behind to beat Lawrence High of Fairfield and Old Town in the Class B North playoffs and then rallied past Freeport in the state title game.
All three games were 3-2 contests.
The Acadians will enter the Senior American Legion World Series in Shelby, North Carolina, on Thursday as winners of 14 of their last 15 games to run their record to 21-5.
“These guys played the best baseball of their lives at the end of the season,” said head coach Brad Smith. “It has been a helluva run.”
Their 13-game winning streak was snapped by Greece Post 468 from Rochester, New York, 13-1 on Saturday, but they had already qualified for the championship game and beat Nashua on Sunday after the New Hampshire champs had edged Greece 3-2 in an elimination game prior to their title game.
In the championship game, they had four repeat hitters in David Baugh, who had three hits including two doubles, and three others who had two singles and a run-batted in apiece in Dawson Curtis, Wellman-Clouse and Brett Bragdon.
Wellman-Clouse hit .500 (4-for-8) during the tournament, with four runs batted-in and six walks. Keblinsky hit .471 (8-for-17), including doubles in his first four games and knocking in four runs while scoring five runs. Sullivan hit .389 (7-for-18) with a triple and team-leading seven RBIs.
Sullivan also scored a team-high six runs.
Left fielder Baugh hit .333 (5-for-15) and scored four times.
Center fielder-pitcher Hunter Curtis, younger brother and first baseman Dawson Curtis, right fielder Miles Palmer and catcher Brett Bragdon each had four hits.
Dawson Curtis knocked in four runs and scored four times.
Third baseman Wyatt Bragdon, Brett’s brother, had two hits.
“A different guy came through every game,” Hunter Curtis said. “Everyone stepped up.”
The defense continued to be rock solid as it was in the state tournament, committing just five errors, including two through the first four games.
The pitching was also impressive.
Hunter Curtis allowed only three hits and one run over 11 ⅔ innings with four strikeouts and three walks. He had two relief appearances to go with his championship-game start.
“He was our go-to guy,” Smith said. “In big situations, he wanted the ball.”
Keblinsky gave up nine hits and three runs over 10 innings in a start and relief appearance with seven strikeouts and six walks, and Craig Burnett tossed 4 ⅓ innings in the opener, allowing four hits and just one run.
Due to pitch limits, Burnett couldn’t pitch again in the tournament because he was required to get four days’ rest after Wednesday’s outing.
There will be eight teams in the Senior American Legion World Series at Keeter Stadium in Shelby, North Carolina, and they will be divided into a pair of four-team groups, a Stars bracket and a Stripes bracket.
The teams play the other three clubs in their group once, and the top two finishers in each of the two groups will square off in the semifinals and championship game with the top seed in one group playing the No. 2 finisher in the other group.
Trenton is in the Stars bracket with Mid-South Regional champ Troy, Alabama; Northwest titleist Cheyenne, Wyoming; and Western winner League City, Texas.
The Stripes division includes Mid-Atlantic champ Brooklawn, New Jersey; Southeast titleist Florence, South Carolina; Central king Lincoln, Nebraska; and the winner of the Great Lakes Regional involving Midland, Michigan, and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, which spilled over into Monday.
Trenton will take on Troy at 4 p.m. Thursday, Cheyenne on Friday at 4 p.m. and, after a day off, it will finish group play against League City on Sunday at 1 p.m.
The semifinals are Monday at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., and Tuesday’s championship game will begin at 7 p.m.