FARMINGDALE  — Four days after committing five errors in a loss to Dirigo to lose out on the top seed in the Western C baseball tournament, St. Dom’s used role reversal to win the Mountain Valley Conference championship.

Five Dirigo errors, six walks and aggressive baserunning spurred the Saints to an 8-5 win Friday that gave them the MVC title in their first season in the conference.

“We’ve worked to be the best team we could be all season and we knew we’d most likely be in this game if we put ourselves in a position to be,” said senior pitcher Chris Bryant, who picked up the win in relief. “We also know that this isn’t the end. We’ve got a big playoff series coming up and we’ve got to get focused on that. We love winning our conference championship, but we’ve got other goals, too.”

Like defending their Class C state championship, which the Saints will start doing next Thursday against the winner of the Traip/Mt. Abram prelim. The Cougars, who clinched the top seed in Western C with Monday’s 5-1 win at St. Dom’s, await the winner of the Waynflete/Old Orchard Beach prelim.

“We’re still around for tomorrow. That’s the big thing,” Dirigo coach Dave Lafleur said. “Hopefully, we got it out of our system. Whenever we have lost, we’ve had a little bit of a lapse in defense. But we have a good club. We’ve got good pitching and good hitting. We battled but came up a little bit short tonight.”

The game teetered on a see-saw through the middle innings before the Saints opened up some breathing room in the sixth and seventh. They put men on base in every inning and after scoring their first four runs on seven hits, they plated their last four without any hits.

“The key was getting the leadoff guy on each of those last three innings,” Saints coach Bob Blackman said. “Once we did that, it allowed us the opportunity to be aggressive. We like to be aggressive and ultimately make teams do something they don’t want to or like to do.”

“We did not have a good day,” Lafleur said. “They put the pressure on, there’s no doubt about it. Especially when you give them walks and make a few mistakes, they definitely take advantage of it. They’re very aggressive on the bases.”

Kurt Johnson led the offense with a single, double, two walks and two runs scored. Will Desmarais also had a pair of hits. But the Saints did most of their damage on the basepaths, stealing four bases, advancing on two wild pitches and two passed balls and taking the extra base whenever the opportunity presented itself.

“A lot of our guys are really fast and that helps us put pressure on them on the basepaths,” Johnson said. “It’s always in the back of their head and sometimes it forces errors.”

An error on Garett Darnell’s grounder to second scored Joe Bryant and Johnson to put the Saints in front for good, 6-5, in the sixth. Darnell stole third and scored on Jimmy Theriault’s sacrifice fly for a 7-5 cushion.

The fifth Dirigo error allowed Shayne Curtis to reach with one out in the seventh. Curtis stole second, went to third on a wild pitch by reliever Eric Bolduc, then scored on another wild pitch with two outs to make it 7-4.

It took some time for the Saints’ offense to be so productive. They loaded the bases in the second and third and had just one run to show for it, a single by Joe Bryant that scored Alex Parker in the third. The Cougars took their first lead in the bottom of the frame when Tyler Chiasson blasted a two-run homer to left off Johnson.

St. Dom’s tied it in the fourth on a Desmarais double off Dirigo starter Ryan Lafleur, a passed ball, and an errant throw to first by the shortstop. The second of two St. Dom’s errors helped Dirigo respond again in the bottom of the frame. A misplayed fly ball in left put Cliff Turner on second, and he scored on Brodie Thompson’s single to make it 3-2 Cougars.

Dirigo’s defensive lapses started coming more frequently in the fifth. Johnson led off with a double and scored when Lafleur fielded Chris Bryant’s bunt and threw it down the left field line. Arik Fenstermacher relieved Lafleur and got two outs and should have had a third without further damage, but a low throw that the first baseman couldn’t squeeze allowed Zak Johnson to reach and Bryant to score to make it 4-3 Saints.

“We don’t want to give any free outs. A strikeout to us is a free out,” Chris Bryant said. “We put the pressure on the defense and make them make plays. We run down the baselines. We hustle like every play is going to be a bang-bang play and sometimes they go your way and sometimes they don’t. If you put the pressure on them like that, most of the time you come out on top.”

The Cougars regained the lead for the final time in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI double by Fenstermacher and a bloop single by Bolduc. But Chris Bryant wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth and worked a 1-2-3 seventh to keep them from rallying again.

“We were uncharacteristic Monday,” Blackman said. “We made five errors. Chris walked seven guys. Our feeling was be loose today. It doesn’t mean a thing. We’ve got to prepare for the playoffs, but let’s play some balanced baseball, which is throw strikes, get ground balls and make the plays.”