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GORHAM — Scott Heath sees Ed Flaherty’s fingerprints all over the University of Southern Maine baseball program. He sees Flaherty’s name above the scoreboard beyond left-center field. He prowls the same dugout Flaherty did, wears the same path to and from the third-base coach’s box. Flaherty still attends games, cheering the Huskies without intruding.

Heath knows all about the two national titles Flaherty’s teams won, the more than 1,100 victories, and the All-Americans who fill the team’s alumni list, and he doesn’t see any of it as pressure. Now in his second season as USM’s baseball coach, Heath is forging his own identity while respecting the past the he and his Huskies inherited.

“I came in here, and the program had been established. It’s been one of the best programs in the country. What Coach Flaherty really built here, it made it easy for me to come in here and put my own twist on it. I kind of expected us to be pretty good,” Heath said after his team beat Castleton, 10-6, Wednesday morning in the opening game of the Little East Conference tournament. “It’s not really pressure. It’s doing what I love to do.”

Wednesday’s win improved the Huskies to 27-10. The top seed in the conference tournament, USM is among teams getting votes but just outside the d3baseball.com Top 25. The Huskies are ranked No. 2 in Region II, just behind Endicott. Whatever happens this week in the Little East tournament, the team looks good for a spot in the upcoming NCAA Division III tournament.

Heath doesn’t want to think about that. He wants his team to focus on the task at hand, and that’s the next game in the conference tourney.

Heath grew up one town over in Westbrook, going to USM games and watching the Huskies contend nationally year after year, before he went on to his own playing career at the University of Maine, where he twice was a first-team America East all-star. He then served two stints as a UMaine assistant coach before he succeeded Flaherty last season following the longtime coach’s retirement in 2024.

“It’s a special place because the people around here care about it,” Heath said.

His team is built for moments like this. It features pitchers like Colin McDonald, the Gorham native who threw six strong innings for the win Wednesday, or Porter’s Carson Black, who tossed three shutout innings in relief of McDonald for the save. Or Bradley’s Gabe Gifford, who has 70 strikeouts in just under 49 innings pitched. These are arms that can play big in a tournament where innings stack up quickly.

Offensively, the Huskies have a deep lineup that entered the week among the national leaders in batting average (18th, .338), slugging (13th, .527), runs (tied for ninth, 416), and on-base percentage (seventh, .471). Leading that lineup is Augusta’s Kyle Douin, who last Friday broke USM records for career home runs (37) and runs batted in (195) with one swing.

On the season, Douin has 12 home runs, 59 RBI and 59 runs. A graduate student, Douin came back this year to make a run at the conference title. His two-run double in the second inning Wednesday gave the Huskies a 6-0 lead.

“Honestly, my goal coming back here was to go out and win a championship. I love the guys, I love the coaching staff,” Douin said.

Douin played for Flaherty for two seasons. The transition to Heath couldn’t have been easier, he said.

“He’s really expected a lot out of us, which is very, very good for the program,” he said.

What makes Douin so good is his consistent approach to the game, Heath said. Douin shows up ready to work every day. It was the first trait Heath saw in the first baseman when he became coach two years ago. It’s the reason he hits Douin second in the lineup rather than third or fourth, building the lineup around him by getting him as many at-bats as possible. He still gets plenty of RBI opportunities, with speedy Evan Baschnagel leading off, and behind Douin are power threats Peter Keblinsky and Caleb Vacchiano.

“He’s one of the best hitters to come through a program that has a lot of really good hitters,” Heath said.

There’s Heath again, nodding to the Huskies’ successful past. It’s one of the reasons he and his team are enjoying a standout season. The Flaherty name isn’t a shadow from which to emerge. It certainly isn’t pressure.

It’s a tradition to maintain. It’s a standard to uphold.