AUBURN — Tough to say which intangible object was harder and more unforgiving Saturday for Telstar ace Ben Field.

The 100-pitch ceiling he struck early in the sixth inning, or the wall he banged his head against all afternoon in a frustrating quest to find a conservative strike zone.

Either way, St. Dom’s sniffed the opportunity and put up the strongest obstacle of all.

Five sixth-inning runs on three walks, a hit batsman, a throwing error and only one hit — a 400-foot double by Jimmy Theriault — broke open the Western Class C baseball semifinal and made the No. 1 Saints an 8-1 winner over the No.  4 Rebels.

With steady raindrops falling and the tall right-hander Field having increased difficulty locating the ball to home plate umpire Barry Fuller’s satisfaction, St. Dom’s sent eight batters to the dish and strolled into their ninth consecutive regional final.

“Barry’s a college umpire. He wants you to throw the ball in a postage stamp, really,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “You could just see in Field’s demeanor on the mound that he was having trouble handling it.”

With one out and St. Dom’s nursing a two-run lead, Kyle Hargreaves walked. Alex Parker got plunked with a 3-1 pitch. Will Desmarais looked at a wayward 3-2 offering and took his base.

Field coaxed Joe Bryant into a pop-up to first for the second out. But winning pitcher Kurt Johnson walked on four pitches to push home a run.

“You have to know my catcher (T.J. O’Connor). He’s not a kid I’ve ever heard say anything,” Telstar coach Bob Remington said. “During one of my conferences I asked him, ‘Does Ben have a right to be upset?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ 

“I was surprised at how well our players dealt with it during the game. When we went down the line to talk afterward, I said, ‘OK, vent.’ Then they all started in.”

Theriault followed Johnson’s free pass by landing a rocket against the far-away fence in his home park on a single hop for the second time in three days.

“I thought again for a second it might be out,” said Theriault, who settled for his second two-bagger of the day and fourth of the playoffs.

“If you take off a little faster,” jabbed Parker, St. Dom’s senior shortstop, “you might get a triple one of these times.”

The next fence St. Dom’s (16-2) gets to use for target practice is the familiar green one at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish. St. Dom’s will face Dirigo at 7 p.m. Wednesday.

St. Dom’s exercised patience throughout in avenging a 2-1 loss to Telstar (13-3) here three weeks ago.

By the end of the third inning, with the Saints clinging to a one-run lead, Johnson had thrown an economical 34 pitches. Field already had dealt 55, even without issuing a walk.

Quizzical looks and muffled words from Telstar’s hurler matched the monologue taking place in Remington’s head.

“I don’t get it. I don’t ever remember seeing anything like it. You hate to get to this point in the season and see that happen,” Remington said. “If you say something during the game it only gets worse. And if you say anything now you get accused of being a sore loser.”

The gray day harbored a promising start for Telstar. Corey Howard doubled and Drew Wilson (2-for-3) delivered a two-out RBI single for a 1-0 lead in the second.

St. Dom’s scratched back with two runs in the bottom half. Danny Nadeau got aboard on a fielder’s choice and Zak Johnson doubled to set up Parker’s two-run single.

Parker, Theriault, Kurt Johnson and Joe Bryant each had two of St. Dom’s 10 hits. Field fanned two. He issued three of his five walks in the sixth.

“The key for us, I told the team before the game, was that if we struck out four times or less and put the ball in play, we would win,” Blackman said.

Both pitchers plucked a potential game-saving defensive gem.

With Theriault standing at third base after his first double and an errant pickoff throw in the third, Field stabbed a Drew Gosselin line drive with his bare hand to escape the inning.

Two walks and a Wilson single wedged Johnson into a one-out, bases-loaded jam in the fourth.

Designated hitter Devin Vail hit a screaming comebacker to Johnson. The southpaw snared it with his glove and threw to Theriault to double up leaning baserunner Howard at third and protect a 2-1 lead.

“As a pitcher, you’re always aware that you have to field your position,” said Johnson, who ran through similar defensive drills at Friday’s practice. “Honestly it was just reflexes. I stuck my glove out. It was kind of a game-changer.”

Parker turned a squibber between home and the mound into a leadoff hit in the fifth. He stole second and scored on a hit-and-run, with Bryant providing the seeing-eye single.

Johnson walked three, struck out three and stranded eight Telstar baserunners. O’Connor had two singles for the Rebels, who banged out seven hits.

“Kurt threw four curve balls the whole day. Last time we played them, he threw 52,” Blackman said. “We really thought with Barry behind the plate, and with the weather, let’s stick with the two-seamer and let them hit groundballs.”

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