DIXFIELD — Three was better than one. In fact, it was twice as good for Dirigo on Saturday.

Three Dirigo pitchers combined to outduel North Yarmouth Academy’s Sam Hutchinson and the Cougars pulled out a 3-1 victory in the teams’ Western Class C semifinal at Harlow Park.

The top-seeded Cougars (16-2) advance to their first regional final since 2006 (3 p.m., Tuesday, St. Joseph’s College), where they will face No. 2 St. Dom’s, which edged them, 1-0, in that game four years ago.

Arik Fenstermacher and Ryan Lafleur threw three innings apiece and scattered four hits before giving way to Eric Bolduc to close the door in the seventh.

“The fact that we can go into the St. Dom’s game with everyone available, that’s a big advantage,” said Lafleur, who improved to 7-0 on the season. “This is the first close game that we’ve had and won, but it’s good. I think it’s a really good thing to have a game like this right before you play a good team like St. Dom’s.”

NYA (12-5) had numerous opportunities to turn this into a back-and-forth game, but left eight runners on base.

“We gave them their first run and we didn’t take the opportunities when we got them,” NYA coach Alan King said. “But I think we opened some people’s eyes. All we hear about is the Mountain Valley Conference and we wanted to come up here and show them we deserved to be here.”

The Cougars’ first run was indeed a gift. With runners at first and second, Hutchinson stabbed Cliff Turner’s grounder back to the mound, whirled and fired the ball into center field, allowing Fenstermacher (two hits) to score from second.

Fenstermacher drew the starting nod for the Cougars and worked around two hits and two walks in his three scoreless innings. Lafleur took over in the fourth.

“I didn’t want to go three inning with Ryan, but we had to in a close game like this,” Dirigo coach Dave Lafleur said. “We had to lay it on the line and everyone came through.”

Hutchinson (six innings, seven hits, four Ks, four walks, three hit batsmen) bobbed and weaved in and out of trouble in the third and fourth. Dave Guildford’s two-out single looked like it might be harmless, too, until Fenstermacher cracked the first pitch he saw over Eli Leavitt’s head in center for an RBI triple that scored pinch-runner Caleb Turner.

“I knew they were going to pitch me outside because that’s what they did the last two at-bats,” Fenstermacher said. “I got up close in the box and just stepped into it.”

“The way he played the game today was kind of like how his season has gone,” Dave Lafleur said. “He’s had a great hitting season, around the mid-.400’s all season, and his pitching has been great. He’s not real overpowering, but he’s putting it in good spots and getting it done.”

NYA finally got on the board against Lafleur in the sixth. With Dean Darien at third, Tyler Chiasson charged a Harry Fast chopper to third and tried to nail Darien at the plate, but the throw was in the dirt and handcuffed Bolduc.

The Cougars added their insurance run in unusual fashion in the sixth. With Justin Conant at second, Spencer Ross blasted a fly ball to right-center. Leavitt had to run a long way to his right to track the ball down, which he did with a terrific catch. But his momentum made him stumble and fall, allowing Conant to score all the way from second on the sacrifice fly.

The Panthers got the tying run to the plate in the seventh on a one-out error, but Bolduc induced a fly ball to left and fanned Darien looking to seal the win.

“Allowing one run as a pitching staff, like we’ve been doing all year long, is amazing,” said Bolduc, part of a pitching staff that threw eight shutouts this season. “Our pitching staff this year has been top notch.”