GORHAM – Oak Hill’s Pat Duchette put himself in the opposition’s shoes, for once, and considered what facing the sidearm pitching motion of his teammate, Mike Daggett, must be like when standing in the right-handed batter’s box.

“When he goes in tight on them, I don’t know. I’d be backing out,” said Duchette, a junior pitcher and first baseman.

Top-seeded Gorham didn’t back out, but it did just about everything else to no avail in Tuesday’s Western Class B final. Daggett, the only senior on the field for Oak Hill, yielded just three hits and hit three batters while fanning nine in shutting out Gorham on its spacious home field and giving the Raiders a 1-0 win.

The Raiders, who last won a regional title and played in a state final when it lost to Narraguagus in the Class C game in 1986, will return to Gorham High School for the state championship game against Bucksport at 5 p.m. Saturday.

“This just feels awesome,” Daggett said while cradling the Western Maine championship plaque in his left arm. “We did something like this in eighth grade when we won the states for Babe Ruth, but this is a good feeling.”

No. 2 Oak Hill (16-3) scored the only run of the game in the second. Jason Guerrette led off with a liner to right that right-fielder Pat Palomaki dove after but just missed. Daggett moved Guerrette to third with a sacrifice fly to right, and Mike Eaton followed with an RBI single to right.

Oak Hill put runners on base in every inning but the sixth against Gorham starter Phil Schools (seven innings, four hits, three strikeouts, one walk) but couldn’t muster any insurance for Daggett.

It didn’t matter. Using a wide repertoire of pitches that included a drop-down curve that he’s been working on since last fall but didn’t unveil in a game until the quarterfinals, Daggett either jameed the Rams’ hitters inside or had them out in front of his sidearm delivery.

“It kept them guessing a lot. It goes up and then down over the plate,” Daggett said, using his right arm to emphasize his new pitch’s mystical journey from the mound to home plate. “It fools them a little bit, I guess.”

But he hit three batters with it, someone reminded him.

“It’s not perfect yet,” he said.

“That deuce (curve ball),” catcher Kyle Lunn offered, “it’s different speeds all the time because he’s dropping down. “You never can tell how fast it’s coming. They were stepping out in front. They never knew what was coming — sidearm, over the top — because he could throw the fastball by them, too.”

“Daggett was tough, and I thought the kids played well behind him also,” Oak Hill coach Bill Fairchild said. “If they hit the ball solid, it’s going to be on the ground. If they miss it, it’s going to be a fly ball, and we’ve got outfielders who can track the ball down.”

Daggett induced eight groundouts and three flyouts, but the only other out not to come by ground, fly or whiff was perhaps the biggest of the game.

Trailing 1-0, Gorham’s Rob Tole led off the third with a double. When No. 9 hitter Jared Gardner didn’t bunt him over to third, Tole took off to try to steal it. Lunn’s throw to Adam Shaffstall got there with time to spare, and the Rams’ threat ended.

Gorham (15-3) tried again in the fourth, putting two runners on with two out, but Daggett sent down Ben Thayer swinging.

Daggett hit his third and final batter, Tim Atwood, with his first pitch of the seventh. Pinch-runner Tom Barks moved to second on a sacrifice and stole third with two out, but he was stranded there as Daggett struck out the final two batters of the game to touch off a red, white and blue celebration in front of the visitor’s dugout.

“We knew after we got that run he was all set,” Lunn said. “Our defense has been very solid the last couple of games, and it’s all coming together.”

[email protected]