WINTHROP – A poised sophomore on the mound and a relentless lineup teamed up Saturday to send Livermore Falls to its first Western C final since 2000.

The Andies punished Winthrop pitching for 13 hits and sophomore Derrick Castonguay picked up his second playoff victory by teasing the Ramblers through six gritty innings in a 10-3 semifinal win. They will now face four-time defending regional champion St. Dom’s at 3 p.m. Tuesday at St. Joseph’s College.

“Derrick’s been doing it all year. When he’s out there, he’s throwing strikes, he’s around the plate (and) we’re able to put our best defense behind him. Until the end, we were pretty solid. Maybe we got a little complacent there,” Livermore Falls coach Brian Dube said.

They had reason to feel a little comfortable because Castonguay was pitching out of trouble and the offense wasn’t letting up. The Andies (16-3) pounced on Winthrop starter Jake Steele immediately, tapping him for a pair of runs in the first (aided by two Winthrop errors), another run in the second and four more in the fourth (helped once again by two fielding miscues).

“We saw Steele and Morang pitch earlier and we felt confident that we could go after the baseball early in the count. We thought we could attack (Steele’s) fastball early. We didn’t want to sit and take pitches if he was going to be in the zone,” Dube said.

Every Andie but one contributed at least a hit or an RBI, led by Kevin Gats (three hits, three runs, three stolen bases) and Jake Marceau (three hits, two doubles, two RBIs). They stole six bases, plated two runs via squeeze bunts, and probably would have scored more if two runners weren’t thrown out at third base in the first inning.

“Our plan was to come out aggressive at the place and move runners along,” Dube said. “We wanted to make sure that we kept adding runs, not just going with what we had, keep the pressure on.”

Castonguay, who beat NYA, 2-1, in Monday’s prelim, allowed 10 hits, two walks and hit a batter, but Winthrop (14-2) didn’t get on the scoreboard until Dave Ricker tripled and scored on a Jordan Conant sacrifice fly in the fifth. The Ramblers collected three hits in the first inning (Andies catcher Willie Brown caught Tyler Cobb stealing and eseentially shut down their running game for the rest of the day) and got a runner into scoring position in each of the first four innings before finally breaking through when they trailed 7-0.

“Their pitcher pitched well. We couldn’t get a key hit. We had guys at second base the first innings (before scoring),” Winthrop coach Mark Fortin said. “We didn’t get the two-out hit.”

“I was hitting my spots and not missing much, but when I did, they hit it pretty well,” Castonguay said. “I know I’ve got a good defense behind me, so that made me more comfortable out there.”

Livermore responded to Winthrop’s fifth-inning gasp with a sixth-inning outburst to make it 10-1. The Ramblers finally chased Castonguay (six strikeouts) in the seventh with two runs but Brown didn’t let the rally get out of hand.

Ricker led Winthrop with three hits, while Cobb and Conant each added a pair. The Ramblers’ only two losses this season were to the Andies.

“We got something on the (MVC championship) banner. We hadn’t won an MVC championship in 27 years, so it’s kind of nice to get that. We had higher ambitions,” Fortin said.

The Andies, who took St. Dom’s to the bottom of the seventh inning in last year’s semifinal loss, also got three hits from Brown, two RBIs from Josh Tainter, two hits from Chandler White and an RBI double from Zach Keene.