STANDISH – Luke Hammond knew he’d have a big hill to climb if he wanted to beat top-seeded Richmond in the Western Class D championship Wednesday. He just didn’t know how big.

Hammond overcame a problem with the mound that led to some early control troubles and tossed a three-hit shutout to give Rangeley a 3-0 win and their second straight regional title at St. Joseph’s College. The Lakers (11-4) will meet Eastern C champion Katahdin for the state championship at 4 p.m. Saturday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.

Hammond also delivered what proved to be the game-winning hit, a two-run single in the third. But with the way the junior left-hander was flirting with disaster through the first three innings, it didn’t look like that lead would stand for long.

“That’s a nice, big mound, and it’s tough. It’s probably the highest one I’ve ever thrown off,” Hammond said. “I guess I was just having trouble following through, and my release point was pretty high, and everything I threw was high.”

Hammond (eight strikeouts, seven walks on 130 pitches) walked the bases loaded in the first but got out the jam by catching Tim Bradford’s two-out pop-up. Richmond (14-3) loaded the bases yet again in the third on two walks and a Bruce Carver single, but Hammond caught Bradford and Matt Brown looking on disputed called third strikes.

“We let him off the hook. We had opportunities,” Richmond coach Ryan Gardner said. “I wasn’t really happy with the strike zone. I thought they were getting a lot more high strikes than we were.”

“I just knew that if I threw strikes we would get these guys out,” Hammond said. “We beat them the first game of the season but had to forfeit (due to an ineligible player). They won on paper, but we beat them.”

Second-seeded Rangeley still carried the sting of that forfeit into the third regional final meeting in as many years between the two teams. The Lakers had a couple of chances to add on to their lead after Hammond’s RBI single, but David Raymond was caught trying to steal home, and Benjamin Bliss was thrown out at the plate trying to score on a Ben Morton double.

Bliss returned the favor in the fifth inning, taking the cutoff from Morton in left on a Bradford single and throwing out Carver at the plate to end the inning and Richmond’s last chance to score.

“I looked at him right before he was rounding third and Benny was coming up firing, so I was like ‘I have this kid, but it has to be a good throw,’ and I made it,” said Bliss, who also contributed two hits to the cause.

The Lakers added insurance off Richmond starter Josh Brown (seven innings, 10 hits, three strikeouts) in the sixth when Kent Madeira tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Hammond had his release point by then and looked like the pitcher who dominated the East-West Conference in the final four innings.