READFIELD – Two weeks from now, there could be eight Western Class B baseball teams cursing Maranacook, wondering aloud why the Black Bears didn’t crush Oak Hill under their cleats like a wad of Big League Chew while somebody had a chance.

Wednesday’s gotta-have-it KVAC game got away from Oak Hill on three separate occasions. But the unaccustomed underdogs hung around long enough to score the eventual winning run on a mishandled third strike in the top of the ninth inning, springing a 6-5 upset that threw the playoff picture into a tizzy.

Twelfth and one spot removed from the party in the most recent Heal Points, Oak Hill (5-8) wasted a three-run advantage before pressuring No. 3 Maranacook (9-4) into giving away two leads of its own.

It’s a turn of events that not only threatens to knock Cape Elizabeth or Poland from the playoff field but sets up somebody else with a potentially frightening preliminary or quarterfinal match-up.

“Our record is what it is, but we’ve played well lately,” said Oak Hill coach Chad Drouin. “I really feel like if we get in the playoffs, we could do some damage.”

Just ask the Black Bears, who lost despite Travis Harwood’s second brilliant nine-inning performance in six days. He threw 170 pitches.

Harwood, the closer on Drouin’s state champion Monmouth American Legion team last summer, struck out 16. Thanks to five Maranacook errors, only one of his runs was earned.

“He’s a gamer,” said Maranacook coach Don Plourde. “We had a lot of opportunities to win and just couldn’t get it done.”

Sometimes even striking out the heaviest hitters in Oak Hill’s lineup wasn’t enough. Raiders wound up safe at first after Harwood’s final two whiffs of the afternoon.

Tom Edgecomb swung errantly but reached to lead off the ninth when both the pitch and the catcher’s throw to first skidded through the dirt. Edgecomb advanced to second on Jared Parkin’s sacrifice bunt, scooted to third on a wild pitch and scored on the second ill-fated strikeout.

Chris Ellis, who entered the game for Oak Hill in relief of Edgecomb in the bottom of the sixth, slammed the door in the bottom half. He bounced back from a one-out walk to Mike Rankin by coaxing a foul popout from Erik Ogren. Ellis struck out Will Bardaglio swinging to end it.

“I think it was just keeping our cool,” said Ellis. “In other games we’ve overreacted a little bit and we’ve gotten tense. Today we really bore down and kept our composure. Hopefully this win will get it rolling again.”

Ellis allowed only two hits, walked four and struck out three. His run was unearned, too. Oak Hill matched Maranacook with five errors.

“We’ve been playing good defense. It went away for a little bit there, but we finished it with defense,” Drouin said.

Bardaglio’s squeeze bunt attempt with one out in the seventh popped softly to Ellis, who fired to fast-closing shortstop Ben Rines to dismiss the departed Rankin at third for the double play.

“Get it on the ground,” said Plourde, “and the ball game’s over.”

Ellis also stranded two in scoring position in the eighth when Rines nabbed a slow roller and beat Ryan Martin by a step at first.

Oak Hill jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the third on a double by Edgecomb, singles by Rines and Joey Morneault and a dropped fly ball. Maranacook used three walks and two outfield miscues to answer with four in the fourth.