BANGOR — Kurt Johnson’s curve lost its bend. His two-seam fastball, a pitch that typically has angry eyes and sharp teeth, no longer looked monstrous.

The four-run lead St. Dominic Academy built over four feverish innings Saturday afternoon disappeared in about four minutes.

Now what?

“It was a brand new game. Then we came right back. That helped me out a lot,” Johnson said. “It gave me confidence, and the last couple of innings everything started coming back to me.”

Joe Bryant reached on a throwing error and crossed the plate by virtue of another misfire in the top of the fifth.

His hopes and his repertoire resuscitated, Johnson didn’t allow any more hits, and St. Dom’s polished off its fourth Class C baseball championship in seven seasons with a 5-4 victory over Calais at Mansfield Stadium.

Johnson flung a five-hitter, mixing in five strikeouts with four walks. The left-handed senior also was 2-for-4 with an RBI, one run scored and two stolen bases.

St. Dom’s previously won state titles in 2005, 2007 and 2009, all at the house Stephen and Tabitha King built. Johnson started in center field as a sophomore when the Saints routed George Stevens Academy, 11-0.

“It’s a lot more fun when it’s a one-run game than it is if you mercy-rule somebody,” Johnson said. “And as the pitcher, I felt like I was able to contribute a lot more.”

Drew Gosselin, Will Desmarais and Bryant joined Johnson with RBI singles for St. Dom’s (18-2).

Bryant doubled and scored in the third inning, but no run was bigger than his heads-up haul for home in the fifth.

Calais third baseman Jesse Clark knocked down Bryant’s line drive to the hot corner. Clark’s throw sailed wide of Dylan Carter at first, however, and Bryant wound up in scoring position.

Johnson followed with a relatively shallow fly to center that fell into the glove of the Blue Devils’ Logan Johnson. That’s when Saints coach Bob Blackman followed the run-first, ask-questions-later pattern established early in this game and throughout the last decade, gambling and calling Bryant toward third.

Adam Geel cut off the throw at shortstop, buying Bryant an extra second. Geel’s relay missed Clark by a bunch and trickled into the Calais dugout. Bryant jogged home.

“I knew I had to get there any way I could,” Bryant said. “I tagged up, and fortunately for us they didn’t make a good throw.”

St. Dom’s never got another runner past second base. None was needed.

Johnson issued only two-out walks to Jeremy Beers in the fifth and Tyler Morrison in the seventh.

Catcher Kyle Hargreaves rifled a nearly perfect strike to thwart Beers’ attempted steal. Shortstop Alex Parker was there to make the tag after Beers slid through the bag.

Logan Johnson’s hot roller in the seventh took a made-to-order hop to Bryant, who flipped to Parker for the force and the final out, touching off a 19-player celebratory scrum around Johnson on the reddish-brown dirt of the Mansfield mound.

“It’s a little different this time,” Parker said. “When I was a sophomore, I was playing, but my brother (Casey) was out there talking to me every step of the way and helping me out. This time I got to take on that role.”

Calais (15-2-1) lost in the final to a Mountain Valley Conference opponent for the second straight year. Dirigo won last year’s title in Standish.

Lewis Francis clobbered a two-run triple in the Blue Devils’ four-run fourth. Nathan Pike had an RBI single for Calais, which also took advantage of two walks, an errant pickoff throw and a wild pitch in the rally.

Parker, Bryant and first baseman Gosselin collaborated for their second inning-ending double play of the day to deny further damage.

“(Johnson) kept us off-balance a little bit. We haven’t seen a lot of left-handers,” Calais coach Kenny Murphy said. “Their defense played well behind him. Their infield was pretty much perfect. They’re a well-oiled machine. They should be really proud. That’s a great program they have over there.”

Calais turned its own double play and threw out Parker attempting to steal third, holding St. Dom’s to a single run in what could have been a more thunderous opening frame.

St. Dom’s started the game with consecutive singles by Parker, Desmarais, Bryant and Johnson against the Blue Devils’ Joe Mitchell. Jimmy Theriault walked on four pitches to make it five consecutive base runners.

Desmarais moved up to second when Calais backstop Francis threw out Parker. He scored on Bryant’s base knock.

Carter snared a line drive by Gosselin and dove to the bag to double up Theriault for the unassisted gem.

“We had guys on base in every inning. It was good to see us put the ball in play,” Blackman said “We didn’t strike out much.”

Mitchell fanned one while surrendering four walks.

St. Dom’s increased the advantage to 3-0 in the third on Bryant’s double and singles by Johnson and Gosselin.

Johnson struck out the side in the bottom of that inning, helped by his own pickoff of Clark after the junior got aboard on a dropped third strike.

In the fourth, pinch hitter Matt Roy drew a one-out walk before logging the fifth of St. Dom’s six stolen bases. Roy’s theft, like many of the others, came in a delayed steal situation that would have looked all too familiar to the Saints’ MVC rivals.

“Teams in our conference know what we’re doing. These guys hadn’t seen us,” Blackman said. “I think we had five stolen bases today off our delayed steals, and by the end of the game they still hadn’t figured it out.”

Roy raced home for a 4-0 lead on a two-out single to right by Desmarais.

“Every time we made a little mistake,” Murphy said, “they hit the ball.”

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