The 2014 Western Maine Red Sox club celebrates with its Andy Valley League Regular Season Championship trophy, and each player holds his individual Andy Valley League Tournament Runner-Up trophy.

In its inaugural season, the Western Maine Red Sox majors club (ages 10-12) went undefeated during the regular season at 16-0 against eight other teams in the Androscoggin (Andy) Valley League from Poland, Minot-Hebron, South Paris, Mechanic Falls, Oxford, and Norway. This was just the second undefeated regular season in the league’s 24-year history, following in the footsteps of the 2011 Bethel Red Sox.

This year’s team entered the playoffs as the undefeated top seed and regular season champion, and went 3-2 in the league tournament held in Mechanic Falls. The Red Sox survived the playback round and reached the title game, falling to the tournament champion Minot Hebron Diamondbacks, whom they’d beaten twice during the regular season. The Red Sox finished with the league’s best overall record at 19-2, while the Diamondbacks finished at 17-3.

The Red Sox team was comprised of twelve local players from Bethel and Woodstock, among them seven twelve year olds (Wyatt Williamson and Joe Dillon from Woodstock, and Devon Cole-Mason, Tyler Hill, Max Godomsky, Matt Lavoie, and Tristen Lilly from Bethel) and five eleven year olds (Mario DeVivo, Will LaFlamme, and Austin Westleigh from Bethel, and Cain Shatzer and Marvel Ayotte from Woodstock). Ten year old Ben Godomsky of Bethel was also called up for eight games from the Bethel Red Sox minors team, and saw plenty of action.

Leading the way on the mound this season were Wyatt Williamson and Tyler Hill, while the defense was led by Will LaFlamme and Austin Westleigh. Offensively, Williamson and LaFlamme led the way, and as a highlight, seven different players homered this season. The biggest outburst of the season was a six homer game against the Oxford Guides (LaFlamme, Cole-Mason, Lilly, and Dillon with one apiece and Williamson with two), with four of them coming in the same inning. In total, the team hit twenty home runs during its twenty-one game season.

Of the thirteen players on the full-time / part-time roster, eleven were selected for various Andy Valley All-Star tournament teams and will play well into July. Wyatt Williamson, Joe Dillon, and Will LaFlamme were selected for the 12/Under A Team (LaFlamme at age eleven), while Devon Cole-Mason, Max Godomsky, Tyler Hill, and Tristen Lilly were selected for the 12/Under B Team. Meanwhile, Cain Shatzer was selected for the 11/Under A Team, and Mario DeVivo, Austin Westleigh, and Ben Godomsky were selected for the 11/Under B Team (Godomsky at age ten).

The team was proudly coached in its first year by Gary Williamson of Woodstock, along with Tim Hill and John DeVivo of Bethel. This very successful first-year combined team, and the currently undefeated Babe Ruth 13-15 age bracket Western Maine Red Sox team, have set a great tone for the near future at the Cal Ripken/Babe Ruth level locally, which also bodes well for the Telstar Middle and High School programs.