BANGOR — Trevor DeLaite had complained about having tired legs after his previous two pitching outings.

But it was nothing a cool late spring night couldn’t cure.

The junior left-hander pitched a three-hit shutout with 17 strikeouts Wednesday night as defending state champion Bangor edged Brewer 1-0 to win the Eastern Maine Class A baseball title before a crowd of 2,500 at jam-packed at Mansfield Stadium.

“The heat last week got to me a little bit,” said DeLaite, who also drew the starting pitching assignment for Bangor’s quarterfinal and semifinal victories, both played in afternoon heat. “But today was a perfect day for me.”

Coach Jeff Fahey’s top-seeded Rams, 17-2 this spring and 35-4 over the last two seasons, will play South Portland in Saturday’s 3 p.m. state final at Morton Field in Augusta. South Portland edged Portland 2-1 in Wednesday’s Western Maine final.

Third-seeded Brewer ends its season with a 14-5 record — with three of the losses to Bangor.

DeLaite was dominant throughout the 1-hour, 42-minute contest. He struck out at least two batters in every inning and went to as much as a three-ball count just twice — both against his pitching counterpart, Brewer junior right-hander Matt Pushard.

Of the non-strikeout outs, three were ground balls and the fourth a foul pop-out to Bangor first baseman Andrew Hillier.

“I knew they didn’t hit very many balls hard,” said Fahey.”He was in control, that’s for sure.”

Perhaps even more impressive than DeLaite’s strikeout total was his walk total — none.

“I’m probably more proud of that, honestly,” said DeLaite, who did hit a batter. “I didn’t want to give them any free bases because they’re a good bunting team and a good hitting team.”

DeLaite, who threw a combined 114 pitches while starting both Bangor’s regional and quarterfinal, threw 97 pitches against Brewer, 71 for strikes.

“He had our guys guessing,” said Brewer coach Dana Corey. “I think he had better velocity than when we faced him before, and his curveball was working and he was hitting his spots. He doesn’t waste a lot of pitches, you know he’s going to be around the plate.

“When you can move the ball around like he does and have that velocity and a couple of pitches to go with it, he’s got a good future ahead of him.”

DeLaite needed to be that good to outduel Pushard, who was pitching for the first time this spring on three days rest after throwing a no-hitter against Mt. Blue of Farmington last Saturday in the regional semifinals.

“Matt battled all the way. He threw a strong six innings and still had a lot left,” said Corey. “He got in a bind a couple of times and got out of it.”

The 6-foot-5 Pushard threw 100 pitches and matched DeLaite’s three-hitter. He struck out six, walked three and hit a batter.

“That’s by far the best pitching performance we’ve had against us this year,” said Fahey. “And I think it’s because he refused to give in. He had 3-2 count after 3-2 count and he kept throwing that curveball on 3-2 and didn’t give us anything to hit.”

Bangor scored the game’s lone run quietly enough in the bottom of the first inning, as Jordan Derrah drew a leadoff walk, was sacrificed to second base by DeLaite and scored when Andrew Hillier lined a first-pitch fastball over Pushard’s head and into center field for an RBI single.

“He threw me one right down the middle so I roped it up the middle,” said Hillier.

Few expected that to be the extend of the game’s offense, save perhaps for the pitchers.

“It came down to that old adage of baseball, when you walk the leadoff batter he’ll score 75 percent of the time,” said Corey. “That happened in the first inning and it held up the whole way through.

“But both pitchers were phenomenal tonight.”

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