Just make sure you call the recent Dirigo High School graduate a man who has earned the right to play at least one more baseball game.

Snowman spun 6 2/3 innings of two-hit relief and legged out the triple that triggered No. 1 Dirigo’s rally from a five-run deficit to a 7-6 victory over No. 4 Hall-Dale in a Western Class C semifinal at Harlow Park.

Brought into the toughest spot in his career, backing up Kaine Hutchins after Hall-Dale chased the ace in the first inning, Snowman walked four and struck out three, including Bobby Cumler to close it out. He didn’t allow a base runner after catcher Tyler Frost threw out Nat Crocker to end the fifth.

“I wasn’t expecting it at all. I just tried to think throw strikes and let my defense do it,” Snowman said. “Earlier in the season I had trouble commanding the ball and was walking everybody. I settled down and got those big outs, and I think that’s what we needed.”

Reigning state champion Dirigo (16-2) advanced to the regional title game for the fourth consecutive year. Game time against No. 2 St. Dom’s (16-2) is 7 p.m. Wednesday at Saint Joseph’s College in Standish.

Hall-Dale (12-6) bid farewell to a nine-game winning streak and lost a one-run verdict here for the second time this season.

“We won 1-0 and scored on a passed ball in the bottom of the first inning. Both teams had one hit,” Dirigo coach Ryan Palmer recalled. “They’re not a team that’s going to beat themselves. They make the plays. They’re very smart. So when we got down 5-0, I’m not going to lie, I was a bit nervous.”

Four of Dirigo’s seven hits went for extra bases, including a game-tying, two-run home run in the second inning by T.J. Frost.

Snowman’s triple knocked in two in front of Tyler Frost’s RBI double in the first. Spencer Trenoweth also plated a run with his triple in the third.

Not before Hall-Dale followed in the footsteps of quarterfinal foe Old Orchard Beach and gave Dirigo a major league scare out of the blocks, though.

“It’s not new, but it’s not good, either,” T.J. Frost said. “We have a good tendency not to panic. We just have to work on not digging ourselves that much of a hole.”

Taylor Lockhart’s two-run single and run-scoring knocks by Nick Sinclair and Kurt Thiele highlighted the Bulldogs’ sensational start. Dirigo also hurt its cause with two errors and a hit batsman.

Snowman coaxed a pop out before issuing a bases-loaded walk to Matt Plourde for the fifth run. He got Zac McNaughton on a grounder to shortstop to stop the bleeding.

Dirigo bounced back with three runs in the first, two in the second and two in the third before Hall-Dale starter Brian Allen yielded to Cumler.

In the bottom of the first, T.J. Frost walked and Hunter Ross floated a single to center to bring up Snowman, who hurt his knee during basketball season.

Surgery would have taken him out of sports for six months to a year. Wiping out baseball, in other words.

“The brace makes me feel like I don’t have an injury at all,” Snowman said. “It’s really nice. It’s helped me out a lot.”

Snowman showed not even a limp on the triple, a journey made easier when he found the spacious gap in left center and the ball rolled more than 40o feet from home plate.

Jack Brown’s single and Brian Volkernick’s sacrifice bunt preceded another titanic blast in the second. Frost’s third home run of the season cleared the short porch and the adjacent road in right field, landing on the neighboring lawn.

“I saw his father parked over there,” Palmer said. “He started honking the horn before the ball even got out. He had a good view, so I assumed it was gone.”

Hutchins led off the third with a walk, stole second and scored the go-ahead run on Trenoweth’s triple. Brett Whittemore made it 7-5 with a groundout.

The top six batters in Dirigo’s lineup each had a hit along with designated hitter Brown in the eighth hole.

“Aside from the home run, we had everybody else hitting, too,” Frost said. “If we had that short fence in left field, I think we would have had a couple more.”

Snowman’s only hiccup came with walks to Sinclair and Thiele to start the fourth. Crocker’s sacrifice bunt and a Plourde groundout produced Hall-Dale’s sixth run before McNaughton flied to Volkernick in left to end the threat.

OOB led 3-0 in the quarterfinal. Dirigo fought back with three in the bottom of the first and went on to a 4-3 win.

“The amount of games we’ve had to come back this year, even the ones we lost, this team just never gives up,” Palmer said. 

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