AUGUSTA, Maine — One of just three defeats suffered by the Hermon High School baseball team this spring has turned out not to be a defeat at all.
The Hawks’ 12-8 loss at Caribou in the second game of an April 20, 2016, doubleheader has been reversed by the interscholastic management committee of the Maine Principals’ Association after Caribou self-reported a violation of the Maine Principals’ Association baseball pitching rule, according to MPA Assistant Executive Director Mike Burnham.
Instead, Hermon received a 1-0 forfeit victory and as a result is now 9-2 and in second place in Class B North.
Caribou is 3-6 and ranked 16th in the division.
According to the Maine Principals’ Association baseball bulletin, “A pitcher who pitches in both games of a doubleheader, regardless if it is against the same team or two different teams, shall not pitch more than three innings per game.”
Game reports filed with the Bangor Daily News by Caribou coach Jimmie Thibodeau in the immediate aftermath of that doubleheader indicated the same Caribou pitcher worked the final two innings of the first game — won by Hermon 9-0 — and the first four innings of the second game for a total of six innings for the day.
“The Caribou coach pitched an athlete four innings in the second game of the doubleheader, violating the pitching rule,” said Burnham in an email Thursday morning. “The school self-reported the violation, and the management committee accepted the report, and the forfeit was entered into the standings.”
Burnham said the applicable rule used to be simply that a pitcher could not work more than six total innings in a doubleheader. That rule subsequently was changed to its current form, but Burnham could not immediately determine the year that took place.
The Maine Principals’ Association’s baseball committee is considering a change from its innings-based formula to determine pitching eligibility to pitch-count restrictions in an effort to address injury and overuse concerns, but no timetable for any potential change has been established.
