STANDISH — The benefits of championship experience are not limited to knowing how to handle pressure in the big game. It also doesn’t hurt to know how and when to turn up the heat on a less battle-tested foe.

Top-seeded Dirigo put pressure on No. 3 Telstar in the sixth inning and forced three errors, leading to the three runs that were the difference in the Cougars’ 4-1 win in the Western C baseball championship Tuesday at Mahaney Diamond on the campus of St. Joseph’s College.

Now winners of 18 in a row, Dirigo (18-1) will face the winner of the Eastern C championship between Calais and Dexter at 4 p.m. Saturday at St. Joe’s. The Cougars will be playing for their second baseball state title in three years, while some of the seniors on the team will be playing for their fourth state title altogether.

Cody St. Germain tossed a three-hit complete game for the Cougars, fanning seven and walking three. Only one of the three hits left the infield.

“Going into the game, we knew that we had more experience in all of these situations. We just kind of rode off that throughout the whole game,” St. Germain said.

“We just had to buckle down,” senior third baseman Ben Holmes said. “We’ve been here before. We just had to act like it was another game.”

Dan Whitney pitched well in defeat for Telstar (15-4), giving up seven hits and four unearned runs while striking out eight and walking one. Three of the Rebels’ four errors in the game led to runs.

“We never made four errors in a game all season. We played a number of errorless games,” Telstar coach Bob Remington said. “I can stand here and comment about the errors, but errors are often forced. (Dirigo) did a good job of forcing errors. At least two of those errors, maybe even three of those four errors were forced.”

Dirigo leadoff hitter T.J. Frost forced the action in the fateful sixth with a single. Caleb Turner bunted to move Frost over, but he was able to reach when catcher Kurt Morgan’s throw to first bounced in the dirt.

“We’re playing for one at that point,” Dirigo coach Ryan Palmer said. “Everyone knew it, on our team anyway. My hat goes off to Danny Whitney. He pitched a hell of a game. The four errors obviously hurt, but that kid is a gamer.”

Chad Snowman followed Turner with another bunt. Whitney fielded it and tried to force Frost at third, but the throw was high and tipped off the glove of the player  covering and went into left field. That sent both Frost and Turner home with the winning runs.

With one out, St. Germain’s single plated Snowman. The third error later in the inning proved inconsequential.

St. Germain clinched it with a 1-2-3 seventh. The 6-foot-5 sidewinding senior righty pounded the outside corner and allowed just three balls out of the infield.

“All of the coaches have been saying just keep it on the outside corner and let your defense do the work,” St. Germain said. “I’m not going to blow anything by them like Ben does.”

“We knew (home plate umpire) Duke (Madsen) as an umpire, and we knew that he liked that outside corner,” Palmer said. “Actually, I thought he squeezed Whitney a little bit on the outside corner. But he gave it to us when we needed it. That’s all I can ask for.”

Telstar’s first error factored into the game’s first run. Holmes led off with an infield single, then went to third on St. Germain’s hit-and-run single to right.

St. Germain  broke for second as Whitney delivered strike three to Spencer Trenoweth. Morgan threw to second to try for the double play, but no one covered the bag and the ball went into center field, sending Holmes home for a 1-0 lead.

After going down 1-2-3 in the first two innings, Telstar put the first two men on in the third and had them at second and third with two out. St. Germain got out of the jam with a ground out to second.

Whitney got out of tough spot of his own in the fourth. With runners at second and third and one out, Trenoweth hit a bouncer to second baseman Tyler Brown, who looked Snowman back to third, then threw to first for the second out. Snowman broke for the plate on the throw, and first baseman Corey Howard delivered a perfect throw to Morgan, who, on one knee, blocked Snowman from the plate and tagged him for the 4-3-2 double play.

The defensive gem seemed to give the Rebels the spark they needed to tie the game in the fifth. Brown led off with an infield single, then with one out, moved to second on a wild pitch and to third on a passed ball.

After Nick Mills walked to put runners on first and third with two out, Drew Wilson singled to center to score Brown, but Snowman gunned down Mills at third to end the inning.

Whitney’s one-out walk in the sixth put the potential go-ahead run on for the Rebels, but the Cougars turned a 4-6-3 double play to maintain the tie and give the Telstar coaching staff a collective knot in its stomach.

“I told the other coaches when we were going into the top of the sixth ‘We’ve got to score in this inning, because the top of their order is coming up in the bottom of the sixth,'” Remington said. “If we don’t score in this inning, we’re in trouble.”

Dirigo sensed it, too.