AUGUSTA – If walks wound a team’s chances of winning, walk-off home runs open the wound and rub salt in it.

Joe Davis’ three-run home run to right field capped a five-run bottom of the ninth as Libby-Mitchell of Scarborough pulled out a see-saw 12-9 win over Bessey Motors in the Maine American Legion Baseball State Tournament at Morton Field Saturday.

Bessey Motors (16-7-1) faces Waterville at 10 a.m. Sunday (weather permitting) in the loser’s bracket of the double-elimination tournament. Libby-Mitchell (14-8), which beat Andrews Post and Nova Seafood to win the Zone 4 championship, meets Gardiner.

Trailing 9-7 in the ninth, Libby-Mitchell chased tiring Bessey starter Dillon Trundy (168 pitches) with a lead-off walk, then former St. Dom’s star Jake Rutt tied the game with an opposite field two-run double to left against reliever Tucker Hill. With one out, Bessey walked clean-up hitter Chris Bernard to set up the double play and pitched to Davis, who pulled an 0-1 offering over the Green Monster-like wall 300 feet deep in right field.

“I was just hoping to hit a gapper, but I just pulled it and sent it over the wall. It’s a little better than the gapper,” Davis said.

“That’s what you want to see from kids in this situation,” Libby-Mitchell coach Will Sanborn said. “This is our first time up here in a long time. Certainly none of these kids have ever played in something like this so it’s great to see them coming back. I think our guys have got a lot of confidence right now.”

With his pitching staff literally hamstrung by an injury to No. 1 starter Ryan Yates, Slicer said he felt he had to stick with Trundy (nine hits, 10 walks, four Ks) as long as he could.

“The first four guys that scored for them were all walks. If we can get rid of that…,” Bessey manager Shane Slicer said. “I can’t fault Dillon. I knew his pitch count was getting up there but he had a good eighth.”

“Dillon gritted it out,” he added. “We hit the ball and got their starter out. We had the game with a two-run lead going into the last inning, and then, again, we walked a guy that inning and hit a guy. Tucker couldn’t throw his curve over for strikes to he had to stick with his fastball.”

Three of the first four batters Trundy walked over the first two innings scored to give Libby-Mitchell a 3-0 lead. Bessey got a run back on Ryan Yates’ single in the third, but Libby-Mitchell extended the margin back to three runs on two walks, a sacrifice bunt and an Aaron Chase error at second base.

Bessey scored five in the sixth to take its first lead. Shortstop Lincoln Sanborn made two errors and generously had a third potential miscue scored as a hit to help the rally. Trundy’s two-run double made it 5-4 Bessey. Yates added an infield hit to give Bessey a two-run lead.

Sanborn atoned for his miscues with a three-run homer to right in the seventh as Libby-Mitchell regained the lead at 7-5. Bessey bounced back with three in the eighth against reliever Tim Grovo, with Dan Millett’s two-run double temporarily putting it back in command.

Yates, Trundy, Brandon Chase and Evan Humphrey finished with two hits apiece for Bessey. Rutt, Sanborn and Jim Rouse had two hits each for Libby-Mitchell.

With flood warnings forecast for the Augusta area Saturday night into Sunday evening and the fields at the CARA complex already saturated, Sunday’s games may have to be postponed. Tournament organizers said they would make a decision whether to play or not early Sunday morning and post it at www.augustababeruth.com between 7 and 7:30 a.m.