The Gardiner Area High School baseball team will play for the Class B state championship Saturday, its first appearance in a state title game since 1947.

The Tigers (16-3), who stormed out of Eastern Maine Class B as the No. 2 seed, will play Cape Elizabeth today at 11 a.m. in Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium

Mike Lavallee will start for the Tigers, while the Capers will either go with junior righty Ryan Boyington or sophomore lefty Conor Moloney.

Each coach — Jim Palmer of Gardiner and Chris Hayward of Cape Elizabeth — acknowledged they know little of each other, which makes the matchup intriguing.
Palmer said it doesn’t matter which pitcher the Capers (12-7) will throw.

“At this point, you just show up and hit,” he said. “We have a lot of rightys in our lineup, so we’ll be OK.”

The Capers are young. They start five sophomores and just two seniors. They have some speed at the top of the lineup, too, in outfielder/designated hitter Zach Breed (17 stolen bases) and center fielder Will Pierce (12).

“We run when the opportunity presents itself,” Cape coach Chris Hayward said. “We execute the little things. When teams beat us, they beat us. We don’t give things away.”