STANDISH – The Armandi Brothers. Sounds more like a circus trapeze act than a successful high school athletics trio.

Monday night, the Armandis provided a 1-2-3 punch that helped lead Jay High School to a 5-3 victory over George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill for the Class C baseball state championship.

Junior Josh Armandi pitched a two-hitter, working his way out of repeated trouble. Senior twins Derek Armandi and Dana Armandi each stroked two hits and combined to score three of the Tigers’ five runs at Larry Mahaney Diamond at Saint Joseph’s College.

“We put them at the top of the order and they usually make things happen, which we did tonight again,” said Jay coach Chris Bessey.

The Tigers capped a 16-5 season with the program’s first state title, while coach Dan Kane’s Eastern Maine champion Eagles wound up 18-3.

Josh Armandi was happy to send his brothers out as winners, again.

“Both my brothers are seniors this year, so it was their last season in basketball and baseball and it feels good to win it for them and say see you later with two state championships,” he said.

Josh Armandi (6-1), a hard-throwing righthander, was in trouble often, but never allowed the Eagles to get the upper hand. He pitched his way out of bases-loaded jams to end the third and fourth innings, then escaped a two-on, nobody-out predicament in the fifth.

“I’ve been in some jams this year and after a while, you keep your focus and you just learn to get out of it,” Josh Armandi said. “It helped me tonight, definitely.”

Kane conceded GSA had ample opportunities to erase the early 4-1 deficit, but was unable to come through with clutch base hits.

“If we could have pulled out a flare somewhere when we had runners on…,” Kane said. “We had all the opportunities in the world to not only get into the game, but maybe even break the game open.”

Derek Armandi lined a solo home run and a single while Dana Armandi doubled and singled to pace Jay, which managed only six hits against GSA junior Chris Sargent (7-2). Ryan Ouellette knocked in two runs with a single and a groundout.

Sargent scattered six hits, striking out seven and walking two in a solid outing for GSA. He simply wasn’t able to overcome the three-run third, when Jay posted three hits.

Already leading 1-0, the Tigers scored three times in the third. With one out, Derek Armandi roped a home run low over the fence in left. Dana Armandi reached on an infield hit toward the middle and Josh Armandi was hit by a pitch.

Ryan Ouellette followed with a hot RBI single past third base, then Jay added a two-out run. Ouellette intentionally got himself into a rundown and Josh Armandi alertly scooted home before the out was recorded, making it 4-0.

“When you get in these championship games, you can’t make mistakes,” Kane said. “We had two errors on the board, we had a couple baserunning mistakes and the kid did a good job on the mound.”

The Eagles responded in the fourth, sending nine men to the plate against Josh Armandi, who began to struggle with his control.

Sargent was hit by a pitch, Baren Yurchick drew a one-out walk and Chris Candage reached on an error by the shortstop, loading the bases. Armandi walked Mike Astbury to force in a run, then Mark Clapp’s chopper to third was misplayed, allowing a run to score.

With the bases loaded and the tying run on third, Armandi struck out Jed Garvey and retired Hans Reuter on a groundout to avert further damage, leaving the Tigers on top 4-3.

GSA threatened again in the fifth without benefit of a hit as Sargent reached on a throwing error and Jacob Lowell was hit by a pitch. But left fielder Ryan DiPompo’s running catch on Hutchins’ fly ball to deep left-center was the first of three straight outs as Jay hung onto the lead.

“He got some key outs,” Kane said.

The Tigers added an insurance run in the sixth without benefit of a base hit on a walk, a stolen base, a groundout and an error.

Jay had reached Sargent for an unearned run in the first. Dana Armandi drilled a one-out double high off the fence in left, then took third when Josh Armandi got aboard on a throwing error. Ouellette’s groundout produced the run.

GSA mounted its first scoring threat in the third inning when Candage fisted a one-out single to center field, Astbury was hit by a pitch and Clapp walked. However, Josh Armandi struck out the next two batters to escape the jam.

TIGERS 5, EAGLES 3

George Stevens (183) Jay (16-5)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Clapp, ss 3 0 0 0 De. Armandi, cf 4 1 1

Garvey, 2b 4 0 0 0 Da. Armandi, 2b 3 2 0

Reuter, rf 4 0 0 0 Jo. Armandi, p 1 1 0

Sargent, p 3 1 0 0 Ouellette, 1b 3 0 2

Lowell, lf 3 0 0 0 Turner, c 3 0 0

Hutchins, 1b 3 1 1 1 Dube, 3b 2 1 0

Yurchick, dh 2 1 0 0 Nelson, dh 3 0 0

Cousins, 3b 0 0 0 0 Charles, rf 0 0 0

Candage, c 3 0 1 0 Turner, ss 3 0 0

Astbury, cf 1 0 0 1 b-DiPompo, lf 2 0 0

a-B. Purrington 1 0 0 0

Totals 26 3 2 2 Totals 25 5 6 3

a-reached on an error for DiPompo in the sixth, b-ran for Purrington in the sixth

George Stevens 000 300 0 ? 3

Jay 103 001 x ? 5

E?Clapp 2, Turner 2, Dube; LOB?GSA 8, Jay 5; 2B?Hutchins, Da. Armandi, Turner ; HR?De. Armandi; DP?; S?; SF?; SB?De Armandi, Jo. Armandi, Dube, DiPompo

Visitor IP H R ER BB SO

Sargent (L, 7-2) 6 6 5 3 2 7

Home IP H R ER BB SO

Jo. Armandi (W, 7-1 7 2 3 1 3 8

HBP?Astbury, Sargent, Lowell by Jo. Armandi; Jo. Armandi by Sargent; T?1:43; ATT?450 (est.)