By Randy Whitehouse,Staff Writer

SOUTH PARIS – Chris Jennings and his tender right wing made a remarkable Eastern Class A quarterfinal comeback by Oxford Hills possible.

Kyle Keniston and his plate discipline made it worthwhile.

The former pitched 6 1/3 innings of excellent relief, allowing his team to tie the game with four in the seventh. The latter sent the second-seeded Vikings on to the next round, with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth for a 6-5 Oxford Hills victory over No. 10 Skowhegan.

The Vikings (14-3) will host sixth-seeded Bangor in the regional semifinals Saturday.

With two out and pinch-runner Ethan Sutton on second, Keniston sent a 2-1 pitch past the diving Skowhegan shortstop and into left field to plate Sutton and set off a jubilant celebration at the Donald Gouin Complex.

“In that situation, I was looking for something to drive,” Keniston said. “The first couple were outside, and it wasn’t the type of count that you want to take one on the outside and hit the other way. You want to get a good pitch to hit as hard as you can, and I got one middle in and I hit it hard.”

Jennings came in in relief of starter Corey Saunders with two out and the bases loaded in the second inning and promptly hit the Indians’ Matt Ouellette with the first pitch he threw to make it 3-1 Skowhegan. He gave up another run in the third on a double by Les Marcue, but he blanked the Indians out from there, surrendering just four hits, two walks and two hit batters.

“I started off real nervous, but I found my place on the mound and settled in. I just tried to change speeds and pound the strike zone and let my defense do the rest of the work,” said Jennings, who also hit two doubles and scored two runs. “There’s a lot of pressure, but you’ve just got to do your job, fight like it’s 0-0 and keep them off the board.”

“You’ve got to give Jennings a great deal of credit, to come in, not knowing he’s going to pitch at all and his arm is tender,” said Vikings coach Shane Slicer. “He just kept pitching and kept us in it.”

Skowhegan (9-9) threatened to add to the lead in the fourth and the seventh, but couldn’t get any more runs across after the third.

LaCasse (six innings, five hits, two earned runs, three Ks, four walks) gave up a run in the first, but settled in nicely after that, allowing just one hit through the next five innings. He began to tire in the sixth, however, and his control suffered, as he loaded the bases on a hit batsmen and two walks with one out before his defense bailed him out with a nifty 4-6-3 double play.

“We were really pumped up, and if we could have come in and scored a run there (in the seventh), that would have helped us out even more,” said Skowhegan coach Steve Mayo. “But Jennings shut us down the rest of the way. His curve ball was working real good.”

LaCasse came back out for the seventh, but he had nothing left after crossing the 100-pitch mark and was relieved by Jason Dore after giving up a leadoff single to pinch hitter Derek Varney and an RBI double to Jennings.

Dore walked the first man he faced, Keniston, then gave up a flare single to Kelvin DeCato to load the bases. Matt McDonnell then hit a fly ball to center that was too shallow for Jennings to tag up from third on, but the centerfielder’s throw home bounced off the catcher and into the Viking dugout, allowing all runners to advance two bases and make it 5-4. With the tying run at third, Chris Roy hit a fly to center that was deep enough for DeCato to tag up on and score the tying run.