BANGOR – Van Buren High School senior lefthander Phil Smith brought remarkable statistics into Tuesday night’s Eastern Maine Class D championship game against Jonesport-Beals at Mansfield Stadium.

And the University of Maine-bound Smith lived up to them.

The stylish Smith, who had struck out 81 and walked just five in just 35 innings en route to a 6-0 record, one-hit the Royals and struck out 17 with his live fastball and a nasty overhand curve to pitch the Crusaders to a 7-1 triumph and a berth in Saturday’s 1 p.m. state championship game against Monmouth.

Top-ranked Monmouth defeated second-seeded Buckfield 9-2. Monmouth is 19-0.

The state-title game will be at Mahaney Field at St. Joseph’s College in Standish.

The eastern crown was top-seeded Van Buren’s first ever in baseball. The Crusaders are now 16-1.

Jonesport-Beals, the third seed, finished at 12-6.

“It’s great to be a member of the team that won this first championship for the town,” said Smith, who walked seven and hit a batter.

He threw 130 pitches of which 75 were strikes. Smith stranded 11 Royal baserunners.

“This was one of my better nights,” said Smith. “I went mostly with my fastball because they weren’t hitting it. I lost my control three-quarters of the way through but I got it back at the end.”

The only hit off him was D.R. Alley’s infield single up the third base line in the third inning.

“He was the best pitcher we’ve faced all year, by far,” said Alley. “He had heat and everything he threw had movement.”

Jonesport-Beals coach Blaine Steeves said, “He did his job. He threw hard. The thing that hurt us is we haven’t faced anybody of his caliber this season.”

Smith and his mates broke the game open by stringing together three-run rallies in the third and fourth innings.

The Crusaders had scored an unearned run in the first inning when center fielder D.R. Alley dropped Tyler Hews’ fly ball for a two-base error and Zach Cote followed with an RBI single down the third base line for his fifth hit in seven playoff at-bats.

Jonesport-Beals starting pitcher Daren Kelley, who was wearing a batting helmet with a facemask to protect broken bones in and around his nose, walked Eric Ayotte and Hews to open the third and both wound up stealing second.

Ayotte went to third on a wild pitch and scored on a passed ball and Hews moved to third on the passed ball and scored on a wild pitch.

Smith walked, stole second and scored on Sean Violette’s line-drive single to right.

In the three-run fourth, the Crusaders received a leadoff single from Eric Ayotte, run-scoring singles from Cote and Stacy Ayotte and a run-producing wild pitch.

D.R. Alley replaced Kelley in the fourth after Eric Ayotte singled and Hews walked to open the inning.

Jonesport-Beals loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth but Smith struck out Mathew Merchant to end the threat. The Royals had two on and two outs in the third but Alvin Beal lined sharply to shortstop Eric Ayotte for the third out.

The Royals scored an unearned run in the seventh on three walks and a passed ball.

But Smith registered his 16th and 17th strikeouts to end it.

Cote was the game’s only repeat hitter with his pair of RBI singles.

Crusaders 7, Royals 1

Jonesport-Beals (12-6) Van Buren (16-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB BI

D.R. Alley, cf-p 4 0 1 0 E. Ayotte, ss 3 1

Kelley, p-ss 3 0 0 0 Hews, 1b 1 0 0

B. Merchant, ss-cf 2 0 0 0 Cote, 3b 4 2

Al. Beal, 1b 4 0 0 0 P. Smith, p 3 0

J. Alley, dh 1 0 0 0 S. Ayotte, c3 0 1

Urquhart, 3b 1 0 0 0 b-W. Smith 0 0

a-M. Alley 0 0 0 0 Gagnon, rf 2 0

King, c 2 0 0 0 Violette, cf3 1

Ab. Beal, lf 2 0 0 0 Chasse, lf 3 0

M. Merchant, 2b 3 0 0 0 Ouellette, dh2 0 0

Bryant, rf 2 1 0 0 Corbin, 2b 0 0

Totals 24 1 1 0 Totals 24 7 4

a-ran for J. Alley in the fourth; b-ran for S. Ayotte in the sixth

Jonesport-Beals 000 000 1 ? 1

Van Buren 103 300 x ? 7

E?S. Ayotte, E. Ayotte; D.R. Alley; LOB?Jonesport-Beals 11, Van Buren 10; S?Hews; SB?D.R. Alley, E. Ayotte 2, Hews 2, Cote, P. Smith

Jonesport-Beals IP H R ER BB SO

Kelley (L,2-1) 3 3 6 5 7 2

D.R. Alley 4 3 1 1 1 3

Van Buren IP H R ER BB SO

P. Smith (W,7-0) 7 1 1 0 7 17

HBP?King by P. Smith; WP?Kelley 2, D.R. Alley, P. Smith; PB?S. Ayotte 2, King; T?2:31 ATT?250 (est.)