AUGUSTA — The Messalonskee High School Eagles came through in the clutch, rallying from a 2-0 deficit to tie the game with a pair of two-out hits and Hannah Duperry’s infield hit drove in the winning run in the eighth as the Eagles beat Bangor 3-2 in the Eastern Maine Class A championship Wednesday night.

Top seed Messalonskee is now 16-3 and will face Scarborough in Saturday’s state title game in Augusta at noon.

Bangor wound up 15-4.

MollyAn Killingbeck’s two-out double off the center field fence in the fifth inning pulled Messalonkee within 2-1 and, in the sixth, winning pitcher Kirsten Pelletier laid down a perfect two-out bunt single to score pinch-runner Sierra McLellan.

“Coach [Leo Bouchard] called the bunt. They were expecting me to hit. And I hadn’t been hitting the ball,” said Pelletier, who had struck out and popped up in her two previous at-bats.

Her bunt was perfectly placed down the third base line.

“That was a really good bunt and we weren’t ready for it,” said Bangor senior shortstop and co-captain Sydni Cosgrove.

Skylar Cassum came on in relief of Emily Reilly at the outset of the sixth and Duperry reached on a one-out walk.

Pinch-runner McLellan went to second on a wild pitch and to third on a groundout before Pelletier delivered her.

Messalonskee had scored its first run when Kelsey Dillon singled with one out, Sarah Labbe walked and, one out later, Killingbeck rifled a 1-1 pitch off the center field fence.

“I don’t know what the pitch was but it felt good when I hit it,” said Killingbeck.

Bangor had broken a scoreless tie in the top of the fifth when Reilly launched a lead-off homer over the left center field fence, her first homer of the season, Lilli Wiseman walked, moved to third on a wild pitch and a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.

In the eighth, Kristen Prelgovisk led off with a grounder to third and she wound up on second when the Bangor third baseman overthrew first.

Dakota Bragg sacrificed her to third and Duperry then hit a high chopper off pitcher Cassum’s glove to Cosgrove but Prelgovisk easily beat the throw home from Cosgrove, who did a nice job getting to the deflected ball.

“I knew they were going to pitch me high to try to get me to pop it up,” said Duperry. “So I tried to get on top of the ball and hit it in the ground. As it turned out, the pitch was right there [down the middle]. I chopped at it. That’s why it took the high bounce.”

The Rams had a chance to build on their 2-1 lead in the sixth when consecutive infield errors put runners on first and second with one out.

But Bangor coach Don Stanhope gave Reilly the bunt sign and she popped it up.

“They were playing back and I thought we could catch them by surprise,” explained Stanhope.

A groundout by Wiseman to short then ended the threat.

The Rams also ran into three outs at third.

Sarah Bragg was thrown out at third trying to steal in the fourth inning; Kylie Cunningham was thrown out trying to race all the way from first on Cassum’s sacrifice bunt and Cordelia Stewart was nailed at third in the eighth trying to advance on a pitch in the dirt.

“We were aggressive on the bases,” said Cosgrove.

“We’d rather go down being aggressive,” said senior left fielder and co-captain Wiseman.

Pelletier finished with a six-hitter. She struck out eight and walked two.

“I threw OK,” said Pelletier, a junior righthander. “I made a few mistakes like on the homer.”

She threw 108 pitches, 76 for strikes.

Reilly pitched very well for Bangor, allowing three hits and one run over five innings with two strikeouts and three walks.

“It was a great game,” said Stanhope. “Messalonskee is a very good team. They put a lot of pressure on us.”