BETHEL — Threatening skies cast a pall over much of Thursday’s Western Class C baseball quarterfinal between North Yarmouth Academy and Telstar, but they didn’t bring rain until late in the sixth inning.

Perhaps they were just waiting for Corey Howard to bring the thunder.

Howard launched two home runs and drove in three runs that proved to be the difference in Telstar’s 6-3 victory over No. 5 NYA. The fourth-seeded Rebels will meet top-ranked St. Dom’s in the semifinals at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Auburn.

Howard led off the fifth with a blast to right-center to give the Rebels (13-2) a 4-1 cushion. After the Panthers pulled to within 4-3 in the top of the sixth, Howard (3-for-3, walk) went deep again in the bottom of the frame, crushing the first pitch he saw to straight away center for a two-out, two-run homer that put the game away.

“They were both on fastballs. I felt good,” Howard said. “I’ve been struggling in batting practice lately.”

“The other day in practice he couldn’t hit anything. He couldn’t hit me,” Telstar coach Bob Remington said. “When he rounded third base on the second one he said, ‘That felt good.’ That was an understatement.”

The Rebels had several chances to break the game open after Ben Field’s two-run single gave them a 2-1 lead in the third. They added a run when Dan Whitney drew a bases-loaded walk in the fourth, but three Panther pitchers limited the damage, stranding nine Telstar baserunners.

“They did a good job of mixing pitches and changing pitchers,” Remington said.

Telstar starter Dan Whitney (5 IP, 2 ER, 4 hits, 6 Ks, no walks) surrendered an RBI double to Tom McGuckin in the second, then stranded a runner in scoring position in each of the next three innings.

“He worked his butt off,” Remington said. “Around the fifth inning he was getting close to 90 pitches in this weather, so I asked him how he was doing. He said, ‘I’m giving every pitch I’ve got everything I’ve got.'”

Whitney finally tired in the sixth, yielding a leadoff double to Al Brown. Kyle Peterson relieved him and gave up a sacrifice fly, a wild pitch to score Brown and back-to-back walks.

Field took over for Peterson and got McGuckin on a grounder to second that scored Ryan Salerno from third to make it 4-3. With the tying run at third, the Panthers (12-5) appeared to try a suicide squeeze on a 3-2 pitch, but Aidan McLaughlin fouled Field’s high fastball off for strike three to end the inning.

Field helped give himself some insurance by stroking a two-out single in the sixth, setting up Howard’s second round-tripper.

“We had that rough top of the inning and the guys were kind of getting a little bit discouraged about that. I was trying to cheer them up,” Howard said. “I guess it was kind of for the team. I love these guys in here and I just wanted to get the win. I’m glad I helped out today.”

The skies opened up shortly after the second home run, and Field slammed the door in a downpour with a 1-2-3 seventh.

Telstar beat St. Dom’s on May 21, 2-1. Field tossed a four-hit complete game to hand the Saints one of their two losses of the regular season. Doing it again Saturday will be a bigger challenge.

“We’ve got the talent to do it. It just takes drive,” Howard said. “Everyone here is pretty hungry to win and we know what we have to do.”