LEWISTON — The Brunswick Dragons weren’t surprised or overwhelmed by Jeff Keene’s pitching repertoire Saturday, but they soon found the odds of scoring off of him overwhelmingly against them.

Keene tossed a complete game four-hit shutout to send top-seeded Lewiston to the regional final with a 4-0 victory in the Eastern Class A baseball semifinals at Franklin Pasture.

The Blue Devils (18-1) advance to face No. 2 Bangor (15-3) at 5 p.m. next Wednesday at Morton Field in Augusta, where they will be bidding for their first trip to the state championship game since 1950.

The senior southpaw struck out just two, walked two and hit a batter. More importantly, he kept fifth-seeded Brunswick from putting him on the ropes early in any inning. He retired the leadoff hitter in each frame, allowed only one batter to reach with less than two out, and didn’t allow a single baserunner past second base. 

“Basically I just wanted to get ahead in the count,” Keene said. “We talk a lot about getting ahead and getting the first-pitch strike. One of the innings I had a three-pitch inning, and that helped a lot.”

“Keene did an awesome job today. He kept us off-balance,” Brunswick coach Bill Ridge said. “We were hitting these weak pop flies in the infield. Our strikeouts weren’t huge, but we might have put a good swing on four or five baseballs today.”

Brunswick (11-7) got a solid effort from its starter, Shane Lizotte (6 IP, 6 H, 2 ER), But Lewiston took advantage of both of the Dragons’ errors while flashing some leather of its own.

“We ran the bases hard and were fortunate to scratch some runs across,” Lewiston coach Todd Cifelli said. “Putting up the four spot the way Jeffrey was throwing and the way the corner infielders were playing, that was the difference.”

Tucker Beaudoin (two hits) led off the third inning for Lewiston with a single, moved around to third when sacrifice bunt attempts by Luke Cote and Scott Ouellette ended up going for singles, and scored on a wild pitch.

Lizotte did well to limit the damage, stranding Cote and Ouellette in scoring position with no one out. But he wasn’t so fortunate in the fourth.

Ben Wigant led off with a walk. Joe Sullivan bunted and reached on a throwing error by Lizotte. Beaudoin, a senior second baseman batting in the No. 9 spot,  singled to score Wigant and double the Devils’ lead.

“I was seeing the ball really good today,” Beaudoin said. “In the nine spot, I just try to turn the batting order over for the top of the order and try to get on base any way I can. We were taking a strike, so the first fastball I saw, I let it go. Then he came in with a curveball in both at-bats. So I was waiting on the curveball and did whatever I could on it.”

“Tucker’s worked hard in practice. He’s sure-handed in the field. He’s hit the ball hard,” Cifelli said. “That’s huge in the nine spot. It seems like in the playoffs, the seven-through-nine spots, if they come through for you, it’s usually a difference-maker.”

Luke Cote (two hits) dropped a bloop single to short center to score Sullivan for a 3-0 lead. The Devils added their final run in the fourth when Mekae Hyde doubled and scored on a throwing error.

Keene cruised through a nine-pitch first inning and a three-pitch frame in the fourth. He stranded two runners each in the second and third.

“Brunswick’s a very aggressive team at the plate, and it’s worked for them this year,” said Cifelli, whose team beat the Dragons three times in 2011. “But Jeff, with his movement, if it’s a fastball coming or something hard, his ball will climb up the bat a little bit. He’s not an easy guy to square-up.”

Both of Keene’s corner infielders, Ouellette at third and Wigant at first, made terrific diving grabs on line drives to make his  job easier. Wigant’s came with runners at first and second with two out in the sixth and prevented at least one run from scoring.

Zach Lavoie became the Dragons’ first baserunner with less than two out when he singled with one down in the seventh. Keene wrapped it up with a fly out and a pop out to first.

“It was that curveball. It kept us off-balance all game,” Ridge said. “We saw it coming. We read it right, and we just couldn’t hold back. And his fastball is fast enough that you’ve got to respect it.”

The regional final will be a rematch of the KVAC championship played on June 4.

“Last game we played Bangor, we beat them, 8-2,”Keene said. “But that means nothing. It’s a whole new ballgame.”