BANGOR – Oxford Hills High School’s Vikings gave outgoing head coach Mike Loveless a going-away present Friday night: an Eastern Maine Class A baseball championship and another game to coach.

That will be Saturday’s noon State Class A title game against Sanford at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

Senior righthander Tyler Cummings fired a seven-hit complete game and senior second baseman Jeff Austin threw out pinch runner Troy Pierce at the plate for the game’s final out as Oxford Hills of South Paris beat Cony High of Augusta 5-4 at Mansfield Stadium.

Pierce was running for Sean Brawn, who lined a two-out double to left. Andy Smith hit a liner up the middle that was slowed up by the mound, which helped Austin get to it behind the second base bag and throw out Pierce.

“I was definitely surprised he was going,” said Austin. “I set myself and threw it as hard as I could.”

Smith said, “Their second baseman is quick and very talented. I knew he was going to get to the ball. I was hoping [head coach and third base coach Al Cloutier] was going to hold him at third but, if I was coach, I would have sent him, too. We needed to make things happen.”

Cloutier said Austin “made a great throw.”

Oxford Hills jumped out to a 4-0 lead before Cony tied it in the bottom of the third on two-out, two-run ground ball singles up the middle by Matt Pare and Ray Vallee.

Oxford Hills scored the game-winning run in the fifth.

Tyler Bryant lined the third of his four singles to left and was credited with a steal of second when first baseman Pare dropped freshman lefty Chris Tupper’s pickoff throw.

It was unlikely that Pare would have been able to throw out the speedy Bryant even if he had handled the pickoff throw.

“Coach [Loveless] told us to go on his first move and I thought I had a real good jump,” said Bryant.

One out later, Alan Batchelder lined a 2-2 pitch to right center to deliver Bryant.

“He threw me a fastball outside and I went the other way with it,” said Batchelder.

Tupper, who said that he pulled a shoulder muscle earlier in the day and tried to pitch through the pain, said he “tried to throw my runner outside as much as I can but he pushed it away.”

Cummings, now 8-1, struck out eight and walked four and got stronger as the game went along. He threw 112 pitches, including 71 for strikes.

He had a live fastball and decent curve.

“It usually takes me three innings to get into it and when Cony got those four runs, it got me fired up. They were hitting my curve so I went mostly with my fastball,” said Cummings, who fanned four hitters in a row spanning the sixth and seventh innings.

VIKINGS 5, RAMS 4

Oxford Hills (17-3) Cony (17-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Olson, c 4 1 1 1 McKenzie, 3b 4 0 0

Austin, 2b 3 1 0 0 Vachon, 2b-ss 2 1 0

Bryant, ss 4 1 4 1 Brawn, lf 4 0 0

T. Cummings, p 4 1 1 1 b-Pierce 0 0

Batchelder, rf 3 0 1 1 Smith, rf 3 0

Wall, 1b 4 0 0 0 Pare, 1b 3 1 2

Treadwell, dh 2 0 0 0 Vallee, ss-p 2 2

McDonnell, cf 0 0 0 0 Whitlock, dh 2 0

Grenier, 3b 3 1 1 0 B. Cummings, cf 3 0 0

Skalski, lf 1 0 1 0 Sanborn, c 2 1 0

Lapierre, 2b 0 0 0 0

Weddington, ss 0 0 0 0

a-Wing 1 0 0 0

Totals 28 5 9 4 Totals 26 4 7 4

a-struck out for Sanborn in sixth; b-ran for Brawn in seventh

Oxford Hills 211 010 0 ? 5

Cony 004 000 0 ?4

E? Webber, Lapierre; Bryant 2; LOB? Oxford Hills 7; Cony 6 2B? Brawn; DP? Webber-Pare; S? Skalski; SB? Batchelder 2, T. Cummings 2, Bryant

Oxford Hills IP H R ER BB SO

T. Cummings (W- 8-1) 7 7 4 4 4 8

Cony IP H R ER BB SO

Webber 1 1/3 3 3 2 3 0

Vallee 2 1/3 1 1 1 1 0

Tupper (L, 4-1) 3 5 1 1 0 2

WP? T. Cummings 2; Valee; PB? Olson; T? 2:25; ATT? 200 (est.)