BANGOR — The Acadians of Mount Desert Island kept their hopes of a state Junior League championship alive on Monday as they rallied in the bottom of the seventh inning to nip Scarborough 5-4 in tournament play at Mansfield Stadium.

A shaky first inning for the MDI squad — the second in as many games — helped stake Scarborough righthander Jackson Coutts to a 3-0 lead.

Singles by Nick Lorello and Bayley Welsh, a ground ball out, a pair of wild pitches by Acadian righthander Dylan Collin and a throwing error combined to get 1-1 Scarborough off to a strong start.

Consecutive singles by Thomas Paola, Collin and Tanner Bickford put a run on the board for the Acadiansl in the bottom of the inning.

The boys from MDI cut the lead to a single run in the bottom of the second on a single by Brenden Sprague, a single by Ryan Bender and a rundown between first and second in which Sprague scored before Bender finally was tagged out to end the inning.

Scarborough pushed the lead to 4-2 in the third as Lorello singled, stole second, moved to third on a groundout and scored on a single by Coutts.

Neither team scored again until the Acadian bats came alive in the seventh.

Paola got things started with a ringing double and Collin followed with a single, scoring Paola.

That brought Lorello on to pitch in relief of Coutts and he was greeted by a Bickford double that moved Collin to third.

Seth Young followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in Collin with the tying run, and Sprague’s fourth single of the game plated Bickford with the winning run.

“Hitting has been our strength all season,” said Acadian coach Mike Swanson. “In that last inning, every ball was stroked. And we made some good plays after the first inning.”

The Acadians were to face undefeated Bangor on Tuesday — in two games if necessary — to decide the state championship.

Errors and wild pitches also took their toll on the Acadians Saturday as Scarborough came up with the 6-4 win.

“We did things we haven’t done all season,” said Swanson, whose squad committed three errors, each of which led to at least one run.

The problems began in the first inning when Scarborough scored two runs on what started as a routine fly ball to left field.

Scarborough’s Nick Lorello and Matt Caron, who both had singled, were off and running when Jackson Coutts lofted a potential double play ball to left field.

But the ball eluded Acadian left fielder Brenden Sprague, and by the time he chased it down, Lorello had scored and Caron was at third base and Coutts at second.

Anthony Simoneau then grounded out to Acadian pitcher Thomas Paola, but Caron scored moments later on a wild pitch and Coutts moved to third.

Coutts then scored as Jack Hughes grounded out to shortstop.

Scarborough’s’ Matt Cook doubled and Johnny Timpson and Lorello both singled with one out in the second inning.

Timpson was erased when he was hit by Lorello’s single but Caron walked to load the bases before Paola got Coutts on a groundout to leave the runners stranded.

The Acadians got singles from Tanner Bickford and Sprague in the bottom of the inning but were unable to score.

But in the third innng, the MDI team pushed two runs across the plate.

Ryan Bender singled and went to second on a botched pickoff attempt.

Riley Swanson reached base when Simoneau, the Scarborough first baseman, dropped the ball while attempting to tag Swanson after fielding his ground ball.

Bender scored when Paola grounded out to second, and Swanson raced home on a single by Dylan Collin.

Scarborough added two more runs in the fifth.

Caron singled, stole second and went to third on a throwing error and scored on a sacrifice fly by Coutts.

Simoneau then beat out an infield single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a single by Bayley Welsh.

The Acadians picked up a run in the bottom of the inning when Bender singled, stole second, went to third on a passed ball and scored when Collin was thrown out at first on a bouncer in front of the plate.

Timpson scored the final run for Scarborough in the sixth, reaching base on an Acadian error.

He stole second, went to third on a single by Lorello and scored when Lorello stole second base.

The Acadians added one run in the bottom of the seventh when Bender tripled and scored on a groundout by Swanson.

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