POLAND – Nick Douglass wasn’t going to let the fact that the Yarmouth Clippers were on to him stop him from literally stealing a win for Poland.

Douglass stole home with two out and two strikes on the hitter in the bottom of the seventh to give the Knights a 9-8 win in a back-and-forth Western Maine Conference thriller Saturday.

Moments earlier, Douglass was pointing to the sky to show his gratitude for some divine intervention that kept Poland’s hopes alive.

With the bases loaded, Douglass broke for the plate on Dan Kameisha’s first pitch to Casey Ray. He stopped about halfway down the line when Ray took the pitch. Yarmouth catcher Luke Pierce chased him for a few feet, then made a throw to third. Douglass narrowly avoided the tag with a dive into the base from the outside of the baseline.

“I was looking for a delayed steal,” Douglass said. “The pitcher and the catcher weren’t really doing a good job looking at me at third, so I was going to try to steal and went a little bit too soon. Luckily, I was able to avoid the tag. It was sheer luck.”

“I told Nick the baseball gods are smiling on us right now, because he was toast,” Poland coach Don King said.

King asked Douglass if he still wanted to try the steal, got the affirmative he was expecting, then gave him the sign to go before the 2-and-2 pitch to Ray. Douglass broke as Kameisha went into his wind-up. The pitch bounced in front and to the first base side of the plate, allowing Douglass to slide in well before Pierce could apply the tag.

“We had the lead in the three games that we lost, and we haven’t been able to put pressure on the other team at the end. We had the opportunity,” King said. “Nick has good instincts, and with two strikes, we’re going to take a shot. I thank Jacoby Ellsbury for getting us excited about that.”

Douglass stole four bases on the day and had a triple. B.J. Bennett went 3-for-3 with two runs scored, while Trey Ouellette and Ben Piper had two hits and two RBI’s each for the Knights (3-3). Jeff Kuklewicz, Chan Arndt and Justin McCrossin collected three hits apiece for the Clippers (2-3).

Each team squandered two leads to send the contest to the thrilling finish. Ouellette erased Yarmouth’s first lead by launching the second pitch of the game from starter Nick Whittaker for a home run. The Clippers picked up two unearned runs off Poland starter Matt Brewster in the second, but the Knights answered with four in their half of the frame, sparked by RBI singles from Josh Cooper, Bennett and Piper.

Yarmouth regained the lead with a four-run fourth, keyed by a bases-clearing triple from Arndt, who later scored on a ground out to make it 7-5. Poland tied it again in the bottom of the inning when Douglass belted and RBI triple and scored on another single by Piper.

Brewster escaped a jam in the fifth. Yarmouth sacrificed two runners into scoring position with one out, but Brewster got Kuklewicz and Pierce to ground out. That allowed the Knights to regain the lead with an unearned run off Kameisha in their half of the fifth.

“Matt Brewster was a little frustrated with himself,” King said. “He said he didn’t have his best stuff. But it’s not about having your best stuff, it’s about competing. We’ve got some competitors on this team.”

Douglass relieved Brewster in the sixth and worked around a walk and an error. In the seventh, however, he bobbled a bunt by Clark Shepard to set up Kuklewicz’s second double, which drove in the tying run.

Bennett got the game-winning rally going with an infield single. He was wiped off the bases on a force out by Douglass, who promptly stole second and third with two out. Yarmouth intentionally walked Piper and Brewster to load the bases, setting up Douglass’ third, and most crucial, steal of the inning.