AUGUSTA — Three area youth baseball teams are prepping for New England regionals in the coming days.

The Augusta 13 and under Babe Ruth squad will open regional play Sunday in Rochester, New Hampshire. Apple Valley, which is comprised of players from Readfield, Winthrop, Monmouth, Sabbatus, Wales, among others, won the 13-15 Babe Ruth state tournament and will head to Lynn, Massachusetts for a regional tournament that gets under way Friday.

Skowhegan is going to host the Cal Ripken 11 and under New England tournament next week

The Augusta 13-year-olds played their way into the New England tournament with a late rally to sink Scarborough-South Portland 5-3 in the state final. Logan Dupont pitched into the seventh to notch the win for Augusta.

Augusta will open regional play against host Rochester at 10 a.m., Sunday. Augusta will also play teams from western and eastern Massachusetts.

“We don’t know anything about any of the teams, but we feel really good with where we are,” Augusta coach Jason Douin said. “We know we have a good team and we got two really good games that challenged us (at the state tournament) and we came out on top in the one that mattered. We have a good group of kids who are going to go out there and represent Maine well.”

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The Babe Ruth 13-15 World Series is August 11-18 in Ottumwa, Iowa.

Apple Valley advanced to New Englands by virtue of a 5-2 win over Tri-County in the state final. Pitcher Brian Hewitt threw three times at the tournament, including a strong outing in the final.

Apple Valley begins play Friday and finds itself in a bracket with three Massachusetts teams.

Apple Valley opens with Eastern Massachusetts on Friday at 4 p.m. It will next play Western Massachusetts at 10 a.m., Saturday before it plays host Lynn at 7 p.m. Sunday to round out pool play.

Though Lynn was in automatically as host, it also won its way into New Englands.

Apple Valley coach Dan Dion said his team is ready to go.

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“We’re kind of going in blind and you never know what to expect, but you have to assume the level of competition will be high. I imagine it will be a little bit better, a little bit faster. But we feel like we’ll be up to the level of competition.”

The Babe Ruth 13-15 World Series is August 13-20 in Williston, North Dakota.

Though it automatically qualified for New Englands as the host team, Skowhegan looked to win its way into the field on merit.

The team won its first three games of the state tournament, beating Auburn, Andy Valley and Brunswick. It headed to the state title game Wednesday unbeaten and needed only to beat Andy Valley once out of two possible games to win the tournament outright.

The New England tournament opens July 29.


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