BANGOR — Baserunning is one of those second-tier basics of baseball behind pitching, hitting and defense.

But it can make the difference in a game between peers.

Jordan Derrah raced all the way home from first base after an errant throw in the bottom of the seventh inning Friday, giving Bangor a dramatic 5-4 victory over Oxford Hills of South Paris in a clash of Eastern Maine Class A contenders at Mansfield Stadium.

The win moved coach Jeff Fahey’s defending state champions (9-2) into first place in the Heal point standings, displacing an Oxford Hills squad which dropped to third place with its 8-3 record.

Derrah opened the Bangor seventh with a walk, then rounded the bases to score with a headfirst slide after Oxford Hills reliever Will Frank overthrew first base on Ben Crichton’s sacrifice bunt.

The ball bounded down the right-field line along the fence of the spacious stadium, allowing Derrah to check twice with third-base coach Dave Morris as he circled the bases.

“We knew what was at stake so we went for a good risk, I suppose,” said Derrah, the Rams’ senior right fielder. “I saw the bunt, and as I got to second base I picked up my third-base coach waving me on and just followed him all the way.

“I was just going for it.”

The play was one of the more overt examples of Bangor’s ability to take the extra base when presented an opportunity this spring. The Rams also are a perfect 29-for-29 in stolen-base attempts this season, although they did not attempt an outright steal against Oxford Hills catcher Matt Smith.

“First to third and second to home we’re very quick,” said Fahey. “We just haven’t scored a lot of runs or had a lot of opportunities to do it, but nearly everybody in our lineup can run.”

Junior right hander Jesse Colford earned the pitching win by striking out the only batter he faced in relief of starter Andrew Hiller, who yielded nine hits while striking out seven batters and walking two in 6? innings.

“If you throw strikes and you defend, you probably come out of these games with the ‘W’ and I think Jeff would say the same thing,” said Oxford Hills coach Shane Slicer, whose team suffered its second loss in three days. “In the games we’ve done that, at least against the top-quality teams, we’ve come out with a win. If we make mistakes, we lose.”

Bangor took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second as Marcus McCue reached on a fielder’s choice, moved to third base on a throwing error after Johnny Cote’s single to left and scored on a wild pitch by Oxford Hills starter Bailey West.

The Rams then packaged three of their six hits in the game to build a three-run rally in the third.

Trevor DeLaite singled to right and Derrah hit an opposite-field double down the right-field line on an 0-2 pitch to open the inning, Crichton’s ground-out to shortstop plated DeLaite before Hillier walked and Sam Huston grounded a two-run single through the shortstop hole to make it 4-0.

Oxford Hills responded in the top of the fourth, sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four runs on six hits to forge a 4-4 tie.

Consecutive singles by Brady LaFrance, Aiden Heikkinen and Smith produced the Vikings’ first run. A sacrifice by West advanced Heikkinen and Smith to third and second bases before Jake Beauchesne and Troy Johnson each singled home a run to cut the gap to 4-3.

Brandon Bean reached on an error to load the bases before Blake Slicer’s flare single to left-center delivered the tying run.

“I’m proud of the kids,” said coach Slicer. “We got down four runs and could have folded at that point after Huston came up with that big hit to put us down 4-0 against a good pitcher. But we scratched back and were right in the game.”

Bangor threatened to score the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth after Cote grounded a one-out single to right and reached third base on a wild pitch and a groundout.

But LaFrance, playing a fairly deep center field to cut off any balls hit toward the gaps, got a quick jump on DeLaite’s towering two-out fly toward shallow left-center and made a fully lunging catch to end the threat.