AUGUSTA — As a well-placed bunt traveled down the third-base line in the final half-inning of play Wednesday, Matt Haney knew what his team was in for.

It was only one play, and the Mount Desert Island baseball coach knew the Cony Rams would need more with the Trojans holding a three-run lead in the bottom of the seventh inning. Yet after Anderson Noyes’ infield single, Haney knew his team’s mission to hold that lead was about to be grueling.

“I’ve seen a lot of baseball games in my life, and I’ve seen so many late rallies start with a bunt hit,” Haney said. “When he laid down that perfect bunt, I said, ‘Oh, boy; here we go.’ Those are always great rally starters. They started smoking the ball after that, and we just happened to get that one big play that was enough.”

“Enough” was what it took MDI to prevail 7-6 in a hard-fought game that they had trailed by three runs through four innings. The Trojans advanced to face either top-ranked Ellsworth (15-1) or eight-ranked Hermon (7-9) in this weekend’s regional semifinals.

With two outs in the seventh and Noyes on second, Cony’s Landon Foster hit an RBI single, stole second and scored on a single by Trenton Hayward that cut Cony’s deficit to 7-6. After Hayward stole second, Joey Wellman-Clouse cleanly fielded a well-hit ball by Wyatt McKenney for the final out.

Colin Sullivan and Preston Tripp had two hits each for MDI, which had seven as a team and overcame five errors. Spencer Grierson got the win for the Trojans, getting two key outs in the fourth inning before pitching scoreless frames in the fifth and sixth.

“It was a fight; it was back and forth,” Sullivan said. “We wanted it more, as you can see. We played our hearts out, and we got it done. … The team really came together for the win.”

Cony looked as if it would take the lead in the bottom of the first inning on a deep fly ball by Trenton Hayward, but a baserunning error instead led to Anderson Noyes being doubled off third. No. 5 MDI (10-7) scored the game’s first run on a Preston Tripp RBI single in the top of the second.

But RBI singles from Teegan Hutchinson in the bottom of the second and Trenton Hayward in the third gave the Rams (11-6) a 2-1 lead. The home team then used two MDI errors and a series of passed balls to score two more runs in the fourth.

MDI, though, responded with two of their own in the fifth to pull within a run before adding another in the sixth to tie the game. Cal Hodgdon scored the go-ahead run for the Trojans on a wild pitch in the seventh before the visitors plated two more runs on an error to take a 7-4 lead.

“It was just amazing perseverance by our guys,” Haney said of his team’s offensive resurgence over the final three innings. “Things could have gone really, really wrong there; we were down 4-1, and they had knocked Colin (who had relieved starter Preston Tripp) out of the game, but we kept fighting.”

But Cony showed some fight of its own in the final inning.

“I told our guys that they showed their true character (making that comeback),” said Cony head coach Don Plourde. “We were dead in the water with two outs, and we gave ourselves a chance. … We made our share of mistakes, but we have guys who are going to get more opportunities and learn from this.”

Parker Morin took the loss for Cony, allowing four earned runs in two innings. Foster, the Rams’ starter, allowed three earned runs in 4 1/3 innings before Max Tibbetts got the final two outs in the fifth. Hayward and Noyes had two hits each for the Rams, who had seven hits and committed two errors.