FARMINGTON — Maybe the third time will be the charm.

The top two baseball teams in Western Class C and the Mountain Valley Conference met Monday for the second time in a week.

Again, there was little drama and a six-run disparity.

And this time, Dirigo exacted revenge in the form of a 10-4 victory over St. Dom’s in the MVC championship game at Hippach Field.

Dirigo (15-2) snapped a two-game skid that included losses to rival Mountain Valley, then St. Dom’s, 8-2 in Auburn on May 30.

“We weren’t going to lose again,” Dirigo senior shortstop Spencer Ross said. “And definitely not to them.”

Counting this glorified exhibition two years in a row and last year’s regional final, the Cougars and Saints have met five times since last Memorial Day. This was defending state champion Dirigo’s third win in the series.

That familiarity seemed to pay off for Dirigo during a six-run fourth inning in which the Cougars essentially beat the Saints at their own game — getting on base by any means possible and causing commotion once arriving there.

Dirigo did its damage in the inning on the strength of only two hits, an RBI triple by Chad Snowman and a rare two-run infield single by Caleb Turner. Ross’ speed and alertness in taking off from second base at the crack of the bat provided that lift.

Three runs also scored on a groundout by Ben Holmes and two wild pitches, the latter on a would-be squeeze play with Turner charging in from third base.

“That was big,” Dirigo coach Ryan Palmer said. “We’ve played St. Dom’s so many times, and finally we were able to get them on their heels a little bit.”

Armed with an 8-2 lead after that uprising, Dirigo’s mound trio of Holmes, Cody St. Germain and Arik Fenstermacher allowed only four hits.

Fenstermacher entered with two out in the fifth and struck out potential tying run Zak Johnson looking.

That left the bases loaded after a modest two-run rally by the Saints (14-3), highlighted by a bases-loaded walk by Drew Gosselin and a pitch that grazed Danny Nadeau.

St. Dom’s went 1-2-3 in the sixth, and Fenstermacher struck out the side around a single by Kurt Johnson (2-for-4) in the seventh.

“We wanted to save our pitching for the playoffs, because that’s our real goal,” Fenstermacher said. “I knew I’d probably be coming in for the late innings if we had a lead.”

The teams played the game like a scrimmage, using a combined seven pitchers. Nobody worked more than three innings, thus remaining eligible for the quarterfinal round of the playoffs Thursday.

No. 2 Dirigo will host Winthrop. No. 1 St. Dom’s awaits the winner of Tuesday’s preliminary game between Monmouth and Traip.

“You have to play with intensity, and I don’t think we did that tonight,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “We try to use this game for information. I was hoping for better information than we got, which was mostly mistakes that we need to correct.”

Turner had four RBIs for Dirigo. Ross singled twice, walked, stole a base and scored three runs.

Numerous walks and multiple hit batsmen, wild pitches and balks bogged down a game that pushed the three-hour mark.

“The pitching restrictions make it hard to attack this game. I’m still not a fan of this game, but it’s nice to win it, and we’ll take the piece of wood,” Palmer said, referring to a trophy that wasn’t available in time for a post-game ceremony.

St. Dom’s took a 1-0 lead in  the second when Jimmy Theriault singlesd, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a wild pitch.

Turner’s two-out, two-run single after hits by Snowman and Ross made it 2-1 in the top of the third.

Will Desmarais tied it for the Saints in the third, again on a pitch that sailed to the backstop.

Holmes and St. Germain padded the lead with RBI singles in the sixth, providing more than enough cushion for the lefty stopper Fenstermacher.

“I was just excited about playing under the lights for the first time in my high school career,” Fenstermacher said. “I’ve played some Babe Ruth games at night, but never a high school game. Just the playoff atmosphere is fun.”

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