LEWISTON – Spectators toted in coolers, broke out the sunglasses and sun block and expanded umbrellas for shade Saturday at Lewiston High School’s tennis complex. Because of a coin flip, what was likely the match of the season for the young Blue Devils against the Mt. Ararat Eagles came early – in the Eastern Class A semifinals.

And for all of the worry about a heat-induced, post-graduation hangover, the boys’ team relied on a pair of players Saturday who had no reason to worry about such things.

They are, after all, still only freshmen.

Scott Gagne and Eric Hall slugged out a 7-6 (4), 6-1 win over Mt. Ararat’s Adam Levesque and Ryan Kittle at No. 2 doubles to clinch a stirring 4-1 win over the Eagles.

“No doubt, it’s the most amazing feeling to come back and win,” Gagne said.

The pair was down 5-4 in the first set, and again 6-5, but rallied to force a tiebreaker.

“To lose that, we would have had to win two sets on top of the one we’d already played to beat them,” Gagne said. “That one game, not giving it up, was the most important.”

The day set up perfectly for the upset. No. 3 Mt. Ararat had an all-but-guaranteed point at No. 1 singles, and two of Lewiston key players – No. 3 singles player Matt Letourneau and No. 1 doubles player Devyn Cote – were out all night with their graduating class at Project Graduation.

“I got about five, six hours of sleep,” Cote said.

Letourneau said he had about the same. But it didn’t matter.

Cote appeared cool, calm and collected as he and freshman Alex Chicoine evened things up at 1-1 with a 6-1, 6-4 win over Andrew Tufts and Josh Bryant.

Junior Ben McDonough pulled out a 6-4, 6-4 win at No. 2 singles, setting the stage for the freshman duo at No. 2 doubles.

“We saw that we had a chance to clinch it,” Hall said. “The crowd really helped, too. It seemed like every point we won, they were screaming.”

Letourneau capped things off with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Josh Dennison at No. 3 singles as sweat poured from his forehead.

“Getting into the second set, it started to hit me,” Letourneau said. “This is the first time all year, practice or match, where we have heat like this. By the end of the second set, I was losing steam. I was hoping to finish it then, and I’m definitely glad it wasn’t up to me to put it away.”

Lewiston will face Bangor in the Eastern Maine final Wednesday at Colby College in Waterville.

On the girls’ side, there was much less worry for the top-seeded Blue Devils, who took out Hampden Academy with apparent ease. All three singles players – Chantalle Lavertu and Audrey and Julia Bergeron – won at love in straight sets. The No. 1 doubles tandem of Emily Parent and Emilie Cloutier scored a 6-1, 6-1 win over Rachel Henderson and Monique Kelmerson, while Abby Blaisdell and Samantha Ricker took care of Katarina Sochorova and Victoria Gower, 6-0, 6-1, at No. 2 doubles.

Lewiston’s girls will face Brunswick on Wednesday at Colby College.