GORHAM – Wishful thinking does work sometimes.

Jay coach Chris Bessey found himself wishing and hoping that Josh Armandi would get one more swing of the bat with the second-seeded Tigers trailing No. 1 St. Dom’s 2-1 in the seventh inning of Wednesday’s Western C regional final.

“I told our assistant coach (Nick Potts) we’ve got to get back to him, because if we get back to him, he’ll make sure something happens,” said Bessey.

He got his wish. Armandi, who pitched the Tigers to the Class C state championship last year, let his bat take care of the heroics with a two-run triple in the seventh inning as Jay pulled off a 4-2 comeback victory at Gorham High School.

Jay (14-5) will defend its Class C crown Saturday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor against George Stevens.

Armandi, who also went all seven innings on the mound (four hits, nine Ks, one walk, one earned run) cranked a 2-0 fastball from Ryan Turgeon into the left-center field gap. The ball rolled all the way to the 395-foot marker on the wall, allowing Shawn Jacques and Jacob Turner to score the tying an go-ahead runs. Armandi then added the insurance run on a wild pitch.

“I got ahead of Turgeon a couple of other times before, but I wasn’t going to just hit some weak fly ball to right (as he had in his last at bat),” said Armandi, who drove in the Tigers’ other run on a ground out in the third. “I knew he was getting tired and I was looking for something up and I got all of it.

“I don’t know how far I hit it, but it was a long run around the bases,” he added.

Armandi then sent the Saints (16-3) down in order in the bottom of the seventh, striking out the first two batters on six pitches before getting a ground out to end the game.

“I don’t think words can describe what he did tonight. I really don’t,” said Bessey. “That’s why he’s Player of the Year in the Mountain Valley Conference. That’s why he’s had college recruiters after him all year. He’s a clutch player.”

Armandi outdueled Turgeon (seven innings, six hits, eight Ks, four walks), who yielded just two hits through the first five innings despite being hobbled when he hit his leg with his bat on the follow-through of a first inning swing.

“He just didn’t seem to be 100 percent. He hit his leg early in the game. I don’t think it affected him too much. He just wasn’t himself today, just wasn’t as relaxed on the hill,,” Turgeon said. “He just got a pitch up and Armandi beat us.”

For the first five innings, it looked like the Saints would get the best of Armandi playing their trademark small ball. They took a 1-0 lead on an error, a wild pitch a ground out to short that advanced the runner to third and a single to right that scored Jon Rutt. Nick Albert made it 2-0 by leading off the third with a walk, stealing second, moving to third on a grounder to third, then scoring on Ian Pullen’s sacrifice fly.

But Armandi worked his way out of two other potential scoring situations which later proved to be pivotal. Mike Carpenter led off the fourth with a single, stole second, and moved to third on yet another grounder to the left side of the infield. He then tagged up to try to score on Jack Lavoie’s shallow fly to center, but Ryan DiPompo threw a strike to home plate to nail the sliding runner by several feet.

St. Dom’s had another chance to inflate its lead in the sixth, putting a runner in scoring position with one out and two runners in scoring position with two outs, but Armandi fanned the final two Saints of the inning to end the threat.

“We just didn’t get that hit when we needed it,” Turgeon said. “We got the runners on base, and Armandi just came up big and got us out.”

The Tigers carried the momentum over into the seventh. No. 9 hitter Jacques, 6-for-6 heading into last night’s game but 0-for-2 on the night, led off with an infield single deep in the hole to short.

“Jacques has been the hero of the playoffs for us,” Armandi said. “He did what he needed to do there. He hit the ball in the right spot.”

Turner followed with a seeing-eye single to right, granting Bessey’s plea for one last chance with his star player at the plate.