Left on Boylston

And we're off and running with spring sports (sort of).

The first couple days of spring sports are a little weird. There's spring break and a bunch of fields fit the definition of a wetland and it's probably going to rain, so the first couple of days are light. They kind of remind me of how the County teams start their soccer season early for harvest (sorry, hahvest). The good news is it let me see the website changes on their feet and I was able to fix a couple of small issues. Other than that, it worked really well. People were entering scores in, mid-game, which was nice to see in action.

Today we start to ramp up a little. It really kicks into high gear on Friday.

The baseball and softball scorer appears to be working now. I've tested it a LOT, but if there's one thing I've learned with writing screenplays, it's that it doesn't matter how many times you proofread a script. You can print it out and pore over it with a red pen. You can have 6 different friends read it. You can stage a table read with your friends. It doesn't matter how cross-eyed you get trying to perfect it. The second you email it to someone important, you'll find a typo. Guaranteed.

So you can score a game now! Hopefully! It's basically similar to GameChanger, iScore, and a bunch of other similar apps with one key difference: it isn't a massive hassle (or expense) for people to follow the game. They can just follow along on the scoreboard, like so (from a test game):

Or open up the Live view (also from a test game...there's been a lot of test games)

I won't promise it's ready for prime time, but it's ready to be stress-tested, so check it out.

First, you'll need to upload a roster (I've uploaded a bunch of KVAC and WMC already). Then, it should populate the rosters when you follow the link from the scoreboard and you can build the starting lineups.

If not (and maybe have a nerdy parent test it out), let me know what it's doing and I'll troubleshoot it. Will it be perfect right away? No! But it's pretty close.

When the game goes final, it will automatically update the new Heal Points page (here's boys LAX)

In-between the many dump runs we all do on the weekends in April and a screening of Fantastic Planet, I caught my first-ever Lacrosse game.

You can hear Mic LeBel of the Lincoln County News (and former LAX coach) explain some of the nuances of the game. The Eagles beat Houlton 10-4.

Elsewhere

AJ Pelletier tossed a 10K, 3-hit shutout in Wells' win over Freeport...Keegan Day struck out 12 as Sacopee Valley mercied Traip...Janessa Moffitt drove in 4 runs and K'ed 9 Carrabec batters in Forest Hills' Opening Day win...Adelaide Strout tied the game with a double and scored the winning run as Yarmouth rallied to beat Greely...Grace McKay's overtime goal gave Messo a win over Cony...Izzie Camp had 4 goals and an assist in Falmouth's win over Gorham...Collin Michaud had 3 goals and 4 dimes in Lewiston's 11-10 win over Hampden...Darling Rogenes scored 4 goals in NYA's win over SoPo.

If you were standing on the starting line of the Boston Marathon yesterday, you had to feel pretty good about your chances for a good time. The temperature was in the 40s with sunny skies and a slight tailwind--absolutely perfect running weather--and the elites answered the call. Three(!) runners beat the course record (imagine beating the course record at the Boston Marathon and finishing THIRD). The American men's record fell, as did the women's.

Unreal! John Korir Destroys 15-Year-Old Boston Marathon Course Record, Running 2:01:52

The Kenyan defended his title from 2025, winning by nearly a minute.

Runner's WorldScott Douglas

In previous years, you could sort the BAA results by state so you could more easily find people, but that's no longer an option, so I'm not sure who the fastest Mainer was, but Facebook seems to think it's Samuel Bradbury of Kittery (via NH), who ran it in 2:19:07.

The Celtics home opener went as well as one could hope it could, but the Bruins did...less well in Game 1.

Buffalo scored 4 goals in the third period to steal a win and my old friend Ben Kennedy had post-game thoughts on his hockey podcast The Maine Hockey Report.

He's been crushing it lately--way better than me on YouTube--so you should subscribe and hopefully Game 2 goes better.

It's about to be the 10th year of the Maine Elite Passing Camp.

Last year, Hampden and Oxford Hills each went 10-6 with the Vikings winning the regular season matchup 9-8 and the 4/5 quarterfinal 4-2 before falling to Mt. Ararat in the semis. So why is Hampden favored today in their opener? Well, they were the 4 seed, so there's that. And they were ranked higher last year, so there's also that. But it's a new season. So we'll see.

It says Hudl has the stream, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The Model's picks for the rest of today's games are after the jump.