WATERVILLE — As the Waterville baseball team prepared to hit in the bottom of the fifth inning of its Eastern B semifinal game against John Bapst of Bangor, coach Don Sawyer thought the season was over. What was he going to say to his team after this? The Purple Panthers were two-time defending Class B state champs, and they were about to lose a home playoff game via the mercy rule.

Not so fast.

Trailing by 12 runs going into the bottom of the fifth inning, the Panthers mounted a rally they’ll be talking about the rest of their lives. Waterville scored eight runs in the fifth inning, then added five more in the sixth to take the lead. The game wasn’t secured until right fielder Tyler Bouchard crashed into the wall to catch Max Andrews’ deep fly ball in the top of the seventh inning.

Bouchard’s catch gave Waterville a 14-13 come-from-behind win. No. 2 Waterville (17-1) will face No. 4 Foxcroft Academy (14-5) in the regional final at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mansfield Stadium in Bangor.

“I’m not going to take any credit for this whatsoever,” Sawyer said. “These kids, we put it on them. You guys hang your heads, get mercied out of here, or you come out here and change your attitude. And they did. They did it all on their own. That’s all they talked about, how to get back into this game.”

No. 3 John Bapst ends the season at 13-5.

After his catch, Bouchard greeted his teammates, who mobbed him in right field to celebrate their comeback. In the second inning, Andrews hit a three-run home run to right field, so Bouchard was anticipating the ball coming his way.

“Earlier in the game, he smoked that one,” Bouchard said. “This one, off the bat I knew it was sky high. I knew I had a chance at it. I just thought to myself, I’m not taking my eye off the ball. I don’t care how close I am to the fence. I’m making this catch. It doesn’t matter how I have to do it.”

The Crusaders jumped on Waterville starting pitcher J.T. Whitten for eight runs in the second inning. The Panthers made two errors in the inning, and John Bapst made them pay. Andrews’ three-run homer made it 7-0, and Evan Pelkey followed with a solo shot to right field for an 8-0 lead.

Bapst added four runs in the third inning off freshman A.J. Godin. The big hit was a Dan Davis double, which chased Godin from the game and gave the Crusaders a 12-0 lead.

“We came into the dugout after they had that big rally inning where defensively, we fell apart. We took it upon ourselves,” Bouchard said. “We had a team huddle without the coaches, and we were honest. Yeah, we fell apart, but we have to move on from it. We can’t just dwell on this, or we’ll lose the game.”

Down 13-1 in the fifth, Waterville’s rally started when Racean Wood reached base on an error, Whitten was hit by a pitch and Bouchard walked to load the bases with no outs. Aidan Fitzgerald singled to score a run and Lance Lefebvre was hit by a pitch to score another.

Kaleb Kane singled and a run scored. After John Bapst coach Dave Gonyar lifted starting pitcher Pelkey for Jon Deschaine, Matt Lee walked and a run scored. Brian Bellows walked and a run scored. Dan Pooler hit a ground ball to first and it took a bad hop past Andrews to drive in two more runs. Wood came up again and his sacrifice fly to left field was the first out of the inning and scored Bellows to cut the lead to 13-9.

The Crusaders pitching meltdown continued in the sixth inning when Waterville scored five runs, all with two outs, and all without a base hit.

“We knew they’re a great team coming in,” Gonyar said. “They’ve proven that. We thought we had them right where we want them, and then they just took the momentum on us.”

Between a pair of pop outs, Lefebvre reached on an error, Lee was hit by a pitch and Bellows walked to load the bases. Pooler walked to score a run, and Wood and Whitten were hit by pitches to make cut Bapst’s lead to 13-12. Andrews replaced Deschaine on the mound and got Bouchard to hit a ground ball to shortstop. Sean O’Donnell went for the force out at second and his throw went into right field, allowing Wood to score the go-ahead run from second base.

While the Crusaders struggled on the mound, Bellows, who came on in the third, stabilized Waterville’s pitching. The lefty gave up just one run in 4 1/3 innings of relief.

“I wanted to get my team back in this. We’ve worked so hard all year, I didn’t want to lose today and go home. We want to go all the way,” Bellows, who missed the second half of the regular season with an injury, said.

With two outs in the top of the seventh, O’Donnell reached on an infield single, setting up Bouchard’s catch of the Andrews fly ball. Asked if he’d ever been in a game like this, Bouchard just shook his head.

“This is a miracle,” Bouchard said.

Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242

[email protected]