By Justin Pelletier,Staff Writer

WATERVILLE – Though only a junior, Lewiston No. 2 singles player James Morin knows how to close out an important match.

Last year, with the score knotted at two between Lewiston and Bangor, Morin was part of the No. 1 doubles team that clinched the Blue Devils’ second straight Eastern Maine title.

Wednesday, Morin did it again, but with less drama.

Ten minutes after Casey Poussard and Devyn Cote closed out Adam Bernstein and Ricky Segal to put Lewiston on top 2-0 in the race to three wins, No. 1 singles players Bryan Brown (Bangor) and Adam Wilding (Lewiston) watched from the side of their court as Morin put the finishing touches on a 6-2, 6-2 win over Nate Cutshall, giving the Blue Devils their third consecutive Eastern Maine Class A title. This time, it was a 4-1 win over Bangor.

“It was 2-2, and it came down to us last year,” said Morin. “I could see from looking over at the other courts that the doubles teams were OK, so that took some pressure off of me and I just relaxed and played. It still felt good to get the clincher for the team, though.”

“James has developed so well this season, right from the start,” said Lewiston coach Ron Chicoine. “He’s at least two or three notches above where he started the year, and he keeps getting better with every match. I was really impressed today. The kid he was playing had tough ground strokes.”

The day started with an ominous feel that sent Chicoine pacing. Wilding dropped his first four games quickly to Bryan Brown, this year’s No. 2 seed in the state singles tournament, and the No. 1 doubles tandem of Nick Bonenfant and Dave Labonte lost three in a row and four of its first five games. Mike Sarrazin, playing at No. 3 singles, split his first two games with Eric Pelletier, and Morin did likewise with Cutshall.

“I don’t know what it is about starting slow,” said Labonte, who along with Bonenfant dropped the first set in the Eastern Maine semifinals last week before rallying to win. “We don’t mean to do it, but we work well under pressure, and we proved that today.”

Labonte and Bonenfant roared back after the slow start, winning 12 of the next 14 games to snag a 7-5, 6-1 win from Justin Turcotte and Drew MacDermott.

Sarrazin won the rest of his games as well, upending Pelletier 6-1, 6-0, and Poussard and Cote, both freshmen, bested fellow freshmen Bernstein and Segal for the fourth Lewiston point.

“For freshmen to perform like that, with that much tenacity and focus, they played like champions,” said Chicoine.

“I was expecting our No. 2 doubles to be better than they were today,” said Bangor coach Cindi Howard. “I don;t know what exactly happened to them today. They had been undefeated. They all played tough, though. They worked hard to get here this year.

Lewiston will take on Deering in Saturday’s state final at Lewiston High School. Deering (14-0) knocked off Windham (13-2) at Bates College on Wednesday to reach the final.

In the girls’ Class A Eastern final, Mt. Ararat (14-0) won three matches in the third set and won handily in the other two to down Brunswick (11-3). Mt. Ararat will also face Deering at Lewiston High School on Saturday.