Mt. Blue baseball pulls away late, takes down Messalonskee

Karter Meader throws a complete game as the Cougars close out the regular season on a four-game winning streak.

Posted Yesterday at 6:53 PM

Updated June 3

Karter Meader of Mt. Blue slides safely into second base as Messalonskee infielder Cavan Gooding awaits the throw Wednesday during a Class A North baseball game in Farmington. (Rich Abrahamson/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image

FARMINGTON — For a Mt. Blue baseball team that had to replace its top two pitchers and hitters from a season ago, the learning curve in 2026 has been steep.

At the right time, though, the Cougars have figured it out to get on a roll. Mt. Blue continued its momentum Wednesday, breaking out in the fifth and sixth innings to defeat Messalonskee 8-1 and end the regular season on a four-game winning streak.

“We didn’t know what this season was going to look like losing all those guys, but lately we’ve been getting it done,” said junior pitcher Karter Meader. “We’ve played great this season, and it feels great.”

HOW THEY DID IT

• Meader delivered on the mound. The junior, who wasn’t even a pitcher going into the season, threw a complete game, striking out six and pitching a nearly flawless game after Messalonskee (9-7) smacked three hits to plate a run in the third inning.

“He came into the year as our No. 1 catcher and turned himself into our No. 1 pitcher,” said Mt. Blue coach Steve Porter. “Hats off to him because he’s a great leader, a great teammate and a great pitcher. Without him, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”

• Mt. Blue (10-6) broke through late in the game. After Messalonskee scored to take the lead in the third inning, the Cougars tied it with a run in the fourth, took the lead with two more in the fifth, then blew the game open by plating five runs in the sixth.

“(Sean Achorn) was a really good pitcher, but once they took him out (in the fourth inning), we started making contact and putting the ball in play,” Meader said. “That’s what we’re taught all the time: Put the ball in play and make them make a play. They made a couple errors and we used that to score some runs.”

WHAT IT MEANS

• Mt. Blue leapfrogged Edward Little to claim the No. 6 seed in the Class A North playoffs. The Cougars will play either Bangor or Mt. Ararat in the quarterfinals depending on the results of contests elsewhere in the state Wednesday and Thursday.

• Messalonskee was locked into the No. 5 seed regardless of Wednesday’s outcome and is almost certain to face Hampden Academy in the quarterfinals. Still, first-year coach Dylan Presby said the Eagles can use the loss to refocus entering the playoffs.

“I’m lucky to have an assistant, Jesse Beckwith, who did his senior paper on the Heal point standings and is the mathematician with that stuff,” Presby said. “I’m not saying that I changed my approach at all today — I threw one of our stronger pitchers — but this was a testament to our mentality, and we have to be better moving forward.”

FROM HIPPACH TO THE HIGH SCHOOL

• Mt. Blue has played most of its games over the years at Hippach Field on the outskirts of downtown Farmington. Yet after improvements were made to the Cougars’ high school field this year, the team has been able to play its last four games there following a recent spell of drier weather.

The two fields could not be more different. While Hippach is known for a 266-foot short porch in right field, the high school field has a long fence that goes nearly 400 feet to the right-field foul pole and also goes 460 to straightaway center. Yet as evidenced by three straight wins here, the Cougars don’t seem to mind.

“I think for the most part, we enjoy playing here,” Porter said. “It’s a good home-field advantage; we have a lot of fans that come with two games going on at once (next to the softball field). The dimensions play a difference here, too, so with us being familiar with the field, it helps us place our defense better.”