BANGOR – Chris Bryant knew.

He gave up a hit on the first pitch he threw Saturday, but the St. Dom’s junior lefty was still sure there wouldn’t be many more where that came from, so he had a message for his teammates when he got back to the dugout.

“The first inning I came out and pitched really well and I knew that I had the good stuff today,” Bryant said. “I told the guys before the second inning ‘Just give me some runs and I think we’ve got a shot at this,’ and they really stepped on the gas.”

St. Dom’s obliged its ace with seven runs over the next two innings in the Class C baseball state championship. Bryant, meanwhile, kept his word and shut out George Stevens Academy in an 11-0 rout that was called after six innings due to the mercy rule.

The Saints (19-1) won their third state title in the last five years. They’ve celebrated all three at Bangor’s Mansfield Stadium.

“I love coming home,” said Saints coach Bob Blackman, who is originally from Bangor.

“We can’t play any better than what you just saw,” he added. “We did everything we wanted to do. We pitched, we fielded, we swung the bat, we ran. Everything that we prepared for, we did.”

St. Dom’s pounded out 11 hits, led by sophomore DH Curt Johnson, who topped a 3-for-3 performance in Wednesday’s Western C championship by going 4-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs scored. Three of those four hits came on the first pitch of his at-bats.

“It was just a good time to start hitting the ball well. I’d been struggling in the previous games, then against Hall-Dale, I really zoned in,” Johnson said. “We knew (Saunders) was throwing strikes early in the count so I wanted to be aggressive early in the count and not get into a position where I had to be defensive.”

Johnson was part of a lower third of the Saints batting order, along with senior catcher C.J. Bergeron and sophomore shortstop Alex Parker, that combined for seven hits, five RBIs, five runs and three steals.

“Our hitting’s been off in the bottom part of our lineup, but everyone was hitting the ball good today,” Bergeron said. “It just all came together today.”

“The bottom of the order killed us,” GSA coach Dan Kane said. “They did a great job staying on it and (hitting) it the other way.”

The Saints stranded a runner at third with two out in the first but quickly jumped on GSA starter Nick Saunders in the second. Ben Randall led off with a single, stole second and, with one out, scored on Johnson’s first hit. Bergeron followed with a triple into the gap in right-center and then scored on Alex Paker’s single. Shayne Curtis drove Parker home with a ground out to make it 4-0.

St. Dom’s plated three more in the third, doing all of the damage after two outs. Aaron Allen singled, then hustled to third when Johnson beat Saunders to first on a nubber to the first baseman. With Bergeron up, Saunders tried to pick off Johnson as he took off for second. Allen drew a throw to third from the first baseman and broke for home, beating the third baseman’s throw.

Johnson scored on a wild pitch and Bergeron, who beat out an infield single, later scored the seventh run when the second baseman bobbled a Casey Parker grounder.

“We’ve got a lot of experience in our order,” said senior left fielder Richard Paradis. “Everybody has been here once, twice, three times. We all know how to scrap it out and win.”

Bryant (six innings, five hits, four strikeouts, one hit batter) had just one 1-2-3 inning, the fourth, but he picked off two runners and had some good defense behind him.

“Throwing strikes early in the count was big. I got ahead of a lot of guys early,” Bryant said. “They have a lot of lefty hitters, which is right up my alley. The key, I think, was coming inside. If they could turn on it, they could turn on it, but I actually got a lot of jam shots on them.”

“He was hitting all of his spots today,” said senior catcher C.J. Bergeron. “His curve ball and slider were working great, and he struck some guys out on his change-up as well. Even when he was throwing it in the dirt, that was planned.”

The Saints put the game away in the sixth with RBIs from Greg LaBonte, Ben Randall (hit by pitch), Johnson and Bergeron. All that was left was for Bryant to keep doing what he’d been doing.

“As a coach, you hope for games like this,” Blackman said. “You don’t get many of them where everything works.”