BANGOR – In recent years, pitching has been the main ingredient in the Bangor Rams’ baseball state championship recipe.

Saturday was no different as junior pitcher Darren Stover tamed Skowhegan bats all afternoon en route to Bangor’s 5-2 Eastern Maine Class A semifinal win at a sun-drenched Mansfield Stadium.

It’s a recipe other teams would love to have, given Bob Kelley’s Rams have reeled off 10 straight postseason victories and are trying to win their third straight state championship.

The third-seeded, 16-2 Rams will meet top seed Cony of Augusta, also 16-2, in a rematch of last year’s Eastern Maine final at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Mansfield Stadium. Skowhegan finishes the year 9-9.

Three of the Rams’ runs were unearned, coming off both of Skowhegan’s errors, and four of their runs came in with two out.

“Good teams are teams that can score with two outs and they did that twice today,” said Skowhegan coach Don Finley. “We got two outs and they got big hits to take advantage of mistakes we made.”

The Rams drew first blood in the bottom of the third. After two quick outs, leadoff batter T.J. True drew a walk. Next up was Tom Waterman, who was mired in an 0-for-5 playoff slump.

Waterman worked the count full before hammering the next pitch almost 375 feet to right-center field for an RBI triple.

“I was expecting a fastball with the 3-2 count and he threw it right down the middle of the plate,” said Waterman, who went 2-for-3.

Tim Patchell then hit a grounder to third, but Skowhegan’s Howie Pike mishandled the ball, allowing Waterman to score and Patchell to reach first safely.

Cleanup hitter Casey Catell made Skowhegan pay for the miscue by whacking a 1-0 fastball from Indians’ righthander Joe Roderiques deep to left-center for the third run of the inning.

Two straight one-out singles, a sacrifice fly, and a hit batsman chased Roderiques in the fifth. Dan Hilton came on in relief and walked the next two batters to force in Bangor’s final run before ending the inning with a strikeout.

Meanwhile, Stover (7-1) was using a nasty curve to whip through the Indians’ lineup.

“He did pretty much what people told me he’d do. He threw strikes and kept us off-balance. He didn’t have to throw many pitches to get to the seventh inning,” said Finley.

The Rams’ righthander threw 63 pitches through six innings, 83 in the game. He also lowered an already miniscule 0.68 ERA by striking out two, walking two, and allowing two unearned runs in a masterful three-hitter.

“They were back in the box pretty much and just sitting on fastballs so I went a lot more with my curve,” said Stover, adding that his arm felt shaky early, but got stronger as the game wore on.

The Indians mounted a threat in the sixth after Jason Tibbetts led off with a single. Leadoff hitter Nate Burnham followed him with a sharp liner to right which went off the glove of Bangor’s Andy Robichaud for a two-base error.

A strikeout and walk later, cleanup hitter Luke Domareki drove in two runs with a seeing-eye single between third and short.

The Rams escaped further damage with an inning-ending double-play – their fifth in two games.

“This group of kids probably can turn the double play as well as anybody we’ve had,” said Kelley.

Rams 5, Indians 2

Skowhegan (9-9) Bangor (16-2)

Name ab r h bi Name ab r h bi

Burnham, cf 3 1 0 0 True, cf 3 2 1 0

Wheaton, 2b 3 0 0 0 Waterman, 2b 3 2 2 1

Pike, 3b 2 0 0 0 Patchell, lf 2 1 0 1

Domareki, lf 3 0 1 2 Catell, 3b 2 0 1 1

Ward, dh 3 0 0 0 Goldsmith, dh 2 0 0 0

a-Cochran 0 0 0 0 b-Philbrick 0 0 0 0

Cyr, c 2 0 0 0 Robichaud, rf 1 0 1 1

Lancaster, rf 2 0 1 0 Pelkey, ss 3 0 0 0

T.Willette, 1b 2 0 0 0 K.Dorr, c 3 0 0 0

c-Conklin 1 0 0 0 Wilcox, 1b 2 0 0 0

Tibbetts, ss 2 1 1 0 d-A.Dorr 1 0 0 0

e-C.Willette 1 0 0 0

Totals 24 2 3 2 Totals 22 5 5 4

a-ran for Ward in fifth

b-ran for Goldsmith in fifth

c-flied out for T. Willette in seventh

d-grounded out for Wilcox in fifth

e-reached on fielder’s choice for Tibbetts in seventh

Skowhegan 000 002 0 – 2

Bangor 003 020 x – 5

E – Pike, Roderiques; Robichaud, Pelkey 2B – Catell 3B – Waterman LOB – Skowhegan 4; Bangor 5 DP – T.Willette to Roderiques; Catell to Waterman to Wilcox, Waterman to Pelkey to Wilcox SB – Robichaud, Catell SF – Patchell

PITCHER IP H R ER BB SO

Skowhegan

Roderiques(L,2-3) 4 1/3 5 5 2 2 2

Hilton 1 2/3 0 0 0 2 2

Bangor

Stover (W,7-1) 7 3 2 0 2 2

HBP – Cyr by Stover; Catell by Roderiques WP – Roderiques; Stover TIME – 1:41 ATTENDANCE – 276