We're two weeks deep, the diamonds are finally dry in most of the state, and the early standings are doing what April standings always do, which is split everybody into three groups. The teams that look ready, the teams that need a few more buses to figure it out, and the team that is currently 5-0 in Class A North and might be the most quietly terrifying program in Maine. We'll get to them.
Oxford Hills got to 5-0 and barely got noticed.
The Vikings opened with five straight wins, scoring 9.4 a game and giving up 2.2. PIR has them at 98.3, third in the state across all four classes. They have not faced their gauntlet yet. Once Bangor, Edward Little, and Lewiston all start showing up on their schedule, we'll see what kind of staff Oxford Hills actually has. For now, the only program in the state with five wins under their belt deserves the top of the recap.
Greely is dealing in B South.
Greely sits at 4-0 with a PIR of 98.4, the highest mark in the state. They are scoring 15.5 a game and giving up 4.8, with one shutout already on the books. B South was supposed to be the wide open class this spring. Greely is making it look closed.
Down the road, Leavitt is also 4-0 in B South, which means the class is going to come down to a Hornets vs Rangers weekend at some point in May, and you should circle it now.
Bangor Christian and Washington Academy are running the small school conversation.
Bangor Christian is 4-0 in D North with a PIR of 98.3 and a 5.2 run differential per game. They have not given up more than four runs in a single game yet. Washington Academy is 3-0 in C North, scoring 14 a game and giving up exactly one. The Raiders have two shutouts in three tries.
If you read our softball recap, the Washington Academy name is going to come up again. Two undefeated programs at the same school, both posting microscopic opponent run totals, on a campus in Eastbrook that takes a real commitment to get to. Whatever they're feeding the pitching staff out there should probably be bottled.
Richmond's offense is doing something funny.
Two games. Forty runs scored. Three runs allowed. The Bobcats put up 20 on Traip and 19 on Temple. They are scoring 19.5 a game with a +18 run differential and sitting at a 94.8 PIR in D South. Class D is generally where Richmond plays, and class D is generally where Richmond cooks. Whether the Bobcats can do this against Penobscot Valley and Bangor Christian is the next question. The offense, at least so far, is the offense.
Cony in B North is the other team scoring at this clip. 14.7 a game, 11.3 differential, 3-0 record. The Rams are sitting third on the PIR board and waiting for the schedule to firm up.
A bad week to be Lewiston or Westbrook.
Bangor opened the window with a 23-2 game over Lewiston. Edward Little hung 21 on Lewiston four days later. Then Cheverus posted a 37-1 game on Westbrook on Thursday afternoon, which is the kind of score that doesn't really show up in baseball anymore. Add in a 22-1 from Old Orchard Beach over Traip and a 19-1 from Madawaska over Fort Fairfield, and you get nineteen shutouts across the state in seven days. April is a brutal month if your bats haven't woken up.
How GameIQ is doing.
GameIQ, the in-house engine that powers every projected score and win probability you see on the Slate, went 92 for 125 last week. That's 73.6 percent. Season to date the engine is sitting at 144 for 187, or 77.0 percent, with most of the misses being one-run games in 40 degree weather. All Access members get the projected line on every game on the board, plus the spread, plus the post-game grade. It is live for baseball now, and it has been working hard.
The biggest GameIQ miss of the week was Gray-New Gloucester taking down Morse 7-5 on May 1, after the model gave Morse a 70 percent shot. The Patriots cashed an underdog ticket and made the engine eat it. The next biggest was Oceanside over Nokomis 7-5, where the model had Nokomis at 69 percent. Cold weather, one-run games, both kinds of upsets the engine has the hardest time pricing in.
What we're watching this week.
Oxford Hills draws Edward Little. Greely lines up with Yarmouth and Cape Elizabeth. Bangor Christian takes a swing at the road portion of their schedule. Cony at Brewer is going to tell us something. And Richmond gets Boothbay, which is the first real chance to see whether that offense plays when the temperature drops.
If you want the rankings updated nightly, the standings page runs every morning. DSI grades how hard each team's schedule has actually been so far, which matters a lot in April when 4-0 against the bottom of your class is not the same as 3-1 against the top. And if you're new to any of these terms, the glossary has plain English on every metric we track.
Last thing, and we'll keep saying it. Maine baseball is a small world. We're trying to do right by all of it.