BANGOR — There was almost an inevitability in the air about how the Eastern Maine Class C baseball title game would play out.

Top-ranked Bucksport and No. 2 George Stevens Academy of Blue Hill were simply too familiar to each other, the Hancock County rivals having already played five times over the past two seasons entering Wednesday’s matchup.

So when the teams met again at Mansfield Stadium with a championship on the line, it also was no surprise the game came down to the final out as Bucksport thwarted a seventh-inning rally by the Eagles for a 5-3 victory and its first Eastern Maine crown since winning as a Class B program in 2006.

“We had a feeling we’d meet them here, they’re a really good team,” said Bucksport senior right-hander Carter DeRedin, who pitched the first 6? innings before getting relief help from classmate Asher Bowden.

Coach Mike Cowing’s Bucksport club (15-4) will return to Mansfield Stadium to play for the state championship at 3 p.m. Saturday against the winner of Wednesday night’s Western C final between Saint Dominic of Auburn and Winthrop.

George Stevens Academy ends its season at 15-4.

The teams’ third meeting this spring — they split two regular-season games — was a tense affair until the bottom of the fifth, when Bucksport used elements of small ball to set the table for a four-run rally that gave DeRedin a 5-0 cushion.

The Golden Bucks loaded the bases with nobody out on a walk to Matt Stewart — the last hitter faced by George Stevens Academy starter Will Ricker — followed by an infield hit by Hayden Craig off reliever Beckett Slayton and a bunt single down the first-base line by freshman Chase Carmichael.

Jack Cyr’s sacrifice fly to left plated Stewart before Bowden blasted Bucksport’s third triple of the game, a two-run shot to deep right field that made it 4-0.

“My eyes grew, I just could see the ball better today,” said Bowden of the fastball on the inner half of the plate. “I just saw the ball and pretended like it was batting practice and crushed it, I guess.”

DeRedin then singled to left to deliver Bowden with the final run of the inning.

“We wanted to get some hits and some runs to relieve the pressure, and we finally did,” said Bowden. “We wanted to relieve the pressure on our pitcher, too.”

But the five-run cushion didn’t prevent some serious last-inning angst.

George Stevens Academy scored three runs in the top of the seventh thanks to an error, two walks, a pinch single by freshman Taylor Schildroth, an RBI single by Harrison Vinall and Ricker’s sacrifice fly, and the Eagles stranded the tying run at first base when Bowden finally recorded the game-ending strikeout.

“Throughout the season we’ve been a team that hasn’t quit,” said George Stevens Academy coach Dan Kane. “The first time we played Bucksport and beat them we were down 5-1 in the fifth inning and we scored six runs with two out.

“We definitely don’t give up, and we were one gapper from getting the lead in this game,” he said. “I thought we had a shot. We kept it going as best we could, but they got us in the end.”

DeRedin earned the pitching win after yielding one unearned run on four hits with six strikeouts.

“You know they’re a team that’s going to get some runs, so once we got those extra four runs it took a lot off my shoulders,” said DeRedin. “But you knew they were going to come back, we just managed to do enough to hold them off.”

Bowden and Dylan Soper each tripled and singled to pace the Golden Bucks’ nine-hit attack while Carmichael singled twice.

Vinall singled twice for George Stevens Academy.

Bucksport took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first as Carmichael hit a one-out single to right-center and scored when Cyr tripled to deep center.

But Ricker got the next two batters to ground out to strand Cyr at third base, then performed a similar escape an inning later after Soper hit a leadoff triple to the right-field corner with two groundouts sandwiched around a strikeout.

George Stevens Academy (15-4) loaded the bases with one out in the fourth on walks to Vinall and Jake Keenan around a single to center by Ricker, but this time it was DeRedin who escaped with a strikeout and a fielder’s choice grounder to shortstop.