The Panthers’ 31-game winning streak ends.

AUBURN – The St. Dom’s Saints ended two days worth of frustration and the state’s longest winning streak in convincing fashion.

The Saints put a halt to two-time defending Class D champion North Yarmouth Academy’s 31-game winning streak, winning a 14-11 slugfest Friday.

With the 14 runs, the Saints matched the two teams’ combined run total in their previous two meetings this season. St. Dom’s batted around in each of the first two innings and pounded out 15 hits to hand the Panthers their first loss since 2002.

“They haven’t lost for two years, so for us this is a big victory,” said Saints’ coach Allen Turgeon. “To beat a good baseball team, a team that can put the ball in play, and play solid defensively, that’s big for us.”

Mike Carpenter led the Saints’ offensive outburst with three hits, two RBIs and two runs scored. Jimmy Mayo added a pair of hits and three RBIs, while No. 9 hitter Brent Cary chipped in with a pair of doubles and two RBIs. Luke Welch led NYA’s 12-hit attack by going 4-for-5 with five RBIs.

The Panthers (8-1) jumped on St. Dom’s starter Brady Blackburn for five runs in the top of the first. But despite already suffering a couple of frustrating losses at the hands of NYA this season, St. Dom’s (8-2) didn’t get down. They answered by batting around and tying the game in the bottom of the first, chasing NYA starter Charlie Fear after just 1/3 of an inning.

The Saints followed that by batting around again and putting another five-spot on the board in the second, thanks to back-to-back triples by Mayo and Mike Guerin, an RBI single by Carpenter and an RBI double by Cary.

“This is a resilient team with a lot of heart and character,” Turgeon said. “They weren’t going to get down. We had come back in the last game with them with the last out made at the plate with the tying run. We were just determined today not to let that happen again.”

“We had two bad losses to them earlier but we’ve believed in our hitting and our team because we’ve been putting up runs all year,” said Mayo, who swung the bat well despite suffering a sprained left shoulder earlier in the week. “We just needed some pitching to help us out and we got it.”

They got it from Ian Pullen, who came on in relief of Blackburn in the fourth to protect an 11-7 lead. The senior allowed one inherited runner to score in that frame, then worked his way out of a jam in the fifth

The offense gave Pullen more breathing room by plating a pair in the fifth on Carpenter’s RBI triple and Cary’s run-scoring double that made it 14-8.

“One kid that stepped up was Brent Cary. He had a couple of big hits and he doesn’t normally play a lot,” Mayo said.

NYA made it interesting again when Welch’s bases-clearing double made it a three-run game again. But, for just the second time in the game, St. Dom’s retired the side in order in the seventh as Pullen struck out two of the final three hitters of the game.

“We probably hit as well as we have all year today,” said NYA assistant coach Eric Palleschi. “We just made a few mental mistakes and made a few errors and that was it.”