By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

STANDISH – It was hard to tell whether St. Dom’s coach Allan Turgeon was wetter from the persistent, soaking rain Wednesday night, or from being deluged by half a bucket of ice water after his team mercy-ruled Telstar to claim its second Western Maine Class C Championship in three years.

The Saints took advantage of the conditions early, plating six runs on just one hit and four Telstar errors in the bottom of the first inning, and rode solid pitching and aggressive defense the rest of the way to a 10-0 win in six innings at Mahaney Diamond on the campus of St. Joseph’s College.

“We’ve worked hard to build a program here,” said Turgeon. “We were ready, mentally and physically, to play in a game like this. We know there is a lot of chatter about the difference between the MVC and WMC, but we’ve put together a quality baseball team here and we’re proud of that.”

The Saints have now won 61 games in four years, and will face George Stevens Academy Saturday at 11 a.m. for the Class C state title. For Telstar, the loss ends an impassioned run as the No. 3-seed.

“That team,” said Telstar coach Bob Remington, “that team will be tough to beat Saturday. They have solid pitching. We haven’t seen pitching like that, even their No. 2 guy that came in tonight. We haven’t seen pitching like that all year.”

Brady Blackman started the game for St. Dom’s (16-1) and went three innings, giving up the lone Telstar hit and striking out five before giving way to Brent Carey. Carey fanned three and didn’t allow a hit in his three innings of work.

For Telstar, Terry Collins didn’t pitch badly, allowing just six hits in six innings of work, while striking out two and walking three.

“I have so much respect for Terry,” said Remington, “staying out there in this stuff and to keep chucking the ball like that. That’s just a lot of guts.”

It was the defense behind Collins that gave way, and it started early.

Jake Albert reached on a four-pitch walk to start the game for the Saints and Mike Carpenter made it to first on a Collins’ error. Jon Rutt loaded the bases with a bloop single that fell between four fielders in left field, and all three runners advanced on a fielding error by the right fielder on a shot by Blackman.

John Emerson walked with the bases loaded to plate Carpenter, and Jimmy Moreau reached on an error by the shortstop, sending Rutt home with the Saints’ third run. Blackman scampered home on another error, and Emerson crossed home after a passed ball. Carey, who reached on a fielders’ choice, went to second on that same passed ball, to third on a stolen base, and then home on an error by the catcher.

“It seemed once we made one error, the rest had to follow suit,” said Remington. “At the end of the inning I sat in the dugout and saw the six and the four and I just said, Tell me this didn’t happen.'”

“In these conditions, getting those early runs made it that much harder for them,” said Rutt. “Once we got those, we ran away with it.”

Emerson and Moreau scored on an error in the third inning and Carpenter and Rutt finished off the scoring in the bottom of the sixth. Rutt slid past Telstar’s catcher, through the mud as an Emerson sacrifice fly plated him from third. What had started as a mist was now a driving rain, but Rutt and his teammates didn’t care.

“I was ankle-deep in water out in center field,” said Rutt. “Under these conditions, this is a great win. It was a great feeling. As soon as I slid, I popped right back up and looked for my teammates. That was a great feeling.”

“These kids, a lot of them, this is their third time in this game,” said St. Dom’s assistant coach Bob Blackman. “We like to think that having been here before helped them out. We made the plays in the field and put the ball in play and made them make the plays. They didn’t, and we took advantage of that.”