Down to its final out and trailing by one, Pastime Club combined strong hits, good eyes and a good bounce to plate a pair of runs in the bottom of the ninth inning Sunday to stun Post 51, 5-4, in the Maine American Legion state tournament semifinal game at The Ballpark.

“We caught a few breaks at the end of the game. We ran the bases hard,” Pastime coach Todd Cifelli said.

The championship game — a rematch from Day 1 of the tournament between Pastime and First Title — began immediately following the semifinal, but is suspended until Monday due to rain with First Title, which draws its players from Cheverus High School, in front 4-2 through six innings.

“We’re really close to a very good Cheverus team with three innings left,” Cifelli said.

That Pastime Club is in the final at all, Cifelli said, is a testament to the players’ attitudes. Playing for a third consecutive state American Legion crown with essentially the same lineup from a year ago, the Lewiston-based club staved off elimination in the two-and-done tourney a year ago after an early loss and rallied to win a second state crown.

“The thing with this team is, we grind (and) we play to the end all the time,” Cifelli said.

This year, Pastime lost on the first day and has been playing elimination games every day since, even working extra innings Friday against Fayette-Staples.

Sunday’s win seemed to come from nowhere.

Joe Sullivan scored what the team though would be one of many runs against Post 51 starter Isaiah Fleming on a Corbin Hyde single in the first inning. But Fleming hung tough, scattering eight more hits and only one more run through the eighth inning.

“He was working on two days’ rest, and he’d thrown eight innings against Fayette-Staples,” Cifelli said.

Post 51, meanwhile, tagged Pastime starter Chris Madden for three runs in the fourth on three hits and two walks to take the lead. Pastime got one back in the fifth, but Post 51, which draws its players from Messalonskee High School, got that one back in the sixth on a pair of singles and an error.

David Cusson scampered home in the seventh for Pastime on a Corbin Hyde single, but Post 51 cut down the tying run on a pick-off play that caught Mekae Hyde sliding into home as brother Corbin raced for second.

In the ninth, pinch-hitter Ryan Riordan and Luke Cote went down quickly. But Sullivan doubled, moved to third on a passed ball and scored when Corbin Hyde smacked the ball through the second baseman’s legs.

Mekae Hyde, who’d walked, advanced to third and then plated the winning run after consecutive walks to Shawn Ricker and Ben Wigant from closer Jake Dexter.

“Jake has been a great closer for them this year,” Cifelli said. “It’s a part of baseball, to be able to slow yourself down when things are speeding up around you. I think we slowed ourselves down, got patient at the plate and were able to pull it out.”

In the championship game, which began about 45 minutes later, Pastime had much better luck against ace Louis DiStasio than it had in the teams’ first meeting Wednesday, a 4-0 shutout for First Title.

Pastime managed a pair of hits in each of the first two innings but stranded all four runners. In the third, though, the Lewiston squad broke through, plating a pair on a fielder’s choice and a sacrifice fly after Sullivan and Mekae Hyde reached base to lead off the inning.

First Title chipped away. Peter Potthoff singled home Nic Lops with their team’s first run in the bottom of the third off Cote, Tyler Flaherty drove in Lops in the fifth to knot the game at two, and DiStasio and Felix Del Vecchio scored in the sixth to put the home team on top by a pair as storm clouds built quickly to the West.

“There’s no easy option in the stretch of their lineup,” Cifelli said. “That’s why they are the team that they are.”

The game is set to resume with the start of the seventh inning at The Ballpark at Old Orchard Beach at 1 p.m. Monday afternoon. The winner of the game will advance to the Northeast Regional Tournament which begins August 9, also at The Ballpark.