OAKLAND – Mt. Blue High School hasn’t enjoyed many leads on the softball diamond in recent years.

When the Cougars did bask in a three-run advantage here against Messalonskee about seven weeks ago, it unraveled in less time than it took the umpires to settle a couple of controversial questions in Monday’s playoff rematch.

So how did the unsung No. 10 seed handle the shock and awe of a seven-run lead, followed by another comeback threat? With disarming ease.

Senior Kaitlyn Bartlett retired eight of the last nine hitters after Messalonskee’s expected counterpunch in the fifth inning, and the Cougars clipped the No. 7 Eagles, 8-4, in an Eastern Class A preliminary game.

“The whole season it seemed like we fell behind and then we’d have to try to claw back,” said Mt. Blue coach Paul Rodrigue, the former Thomas College boss who took the Cougars’ job with only days to spare in March. “Tonight we got ahead. It’s a nicer feeling.”

Mt. Blue (7-10) will travel to No. 2 Skowhegan (15-1) for a quarterfinal game Thursday.

Swept by scores of 10-7 and 14-4 during the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference regular season, the Cougars sent the Eagles reeling with a run in the first inning, four in the third and two more in the fourth.

Two errors, a hit batter and singles by Emily Weeks, Jules Fekete and Britt Corey more than cut the lead in half for Messalonskee (9-8). But Bartlett coaxed consecutive flyouts by Kris Lawler and Lauren Hachey to left fielder Taryn Kennedy.

Morgan Workman’s leadoff walk in the seventh represented the Eagles’ lone baserunner for the balance.

“We attacked the ball well,” said Bartlett, who singled and scored a run in the fourth for Mt. Blue. “(The big lead) did help. It helped mentally big time.”

Mt. Blue had two opportunities to answer Messalonskee’s surge with insurance runs. The first ended in bizarre fashion.

After Johanna Laplant’s single and a subsequent late throw left Cougars at second and third with two out in the sixth, Messalonskee coach Leo Bouchard protested the base hit.

Laplant, Mt. Blue’s catcher, was briefly removed in the fourth for pinch hitter Mirka Novakova. Nobody from Mt. Blue reported Laplant’s re-entry prior to her hit.

Bouchard said that the move probably backfired, because the 10-minute discussion that produced Mt. Blue’s third out might have broken his team’s momentum, too.

“I think the delay kind of took the air out of the bag a little bit. The officials had a decision to make. I think they made the correct decision,” Bouchard said. “But we’ve been struggling hitting the last three or four games of the season, and it showed again today. We’d hit the ball right at ’em.”

Later, there was another delay to discuss the substitution issue after Mt. Blue discovered that high school federation rules would have called for a warning, not an out. The umpiring crew invoked the less forgiving ASA rule.

It was all rendered irrelevant when sophomore Hannah Allen ripped a sharp single down the right field line with one out in the seventh. Allen circled the bases when the ball was misplayed and rolled all the way to the fence.

“That was a bullet. That was momentum,” Rodrigue said. “At that point I knew they would need to hit a grand slam against us to tie it. That’s what that extra run gave us.”

Sabrina Keach’s RBI single gave Mt. Blue the lead against Messalonskee starter Chelsea Smith in the opening frame.

Singles by Kelly Yardley, Keach and Chelsea Kendall combined with three Eagles errors to chase Smith in the third. Novakova and Moria Rowe’s back-to-back, bases-loaded walks continued the onslaught against freshman reliever Sarah Boynton in the fourth.

“It was one bad inning. The wheels came off. This was a team we beat rather handily twice during the season. Whether that had an effect on us or not, I don’t know,” Bouchard said. “This is not where I expected to be at the end of the day. There’s no question about that. Let’s give Mt. Blue their due. They were ready to play.”

Bartlett carried a no-hitter until Hachey doubled with two out in the fourth. She struck out six.