AUBURN — The St. Dominic Academy baseball team had last year’s two-run loss to Winthrop in the Western Class C quarterfinals in the back of its mind heading into Saturday’s Western Maine Class C semifinals.

This time, the Saints tightened up defensively and got an outstanding pitching performance from Zack Johnson on their way to a 2-0 victory.

“I can’t stand here and say we weren’t thinking about it, we were,” St. Dom’s coach Bob Blackman said. “We wanted a little revenge, they played a great game last year and knocked us out.”

Winthrop head coach Marc Fortin tipped his hat to Johnson.

“We didn’t hit the ball, he was tricky with his curve ball and kept us off balance,” Fortin said. “We couldn’t come up with the hits today.”

The game entered the bottom of the sixth scoreless, with Winthrop’s Jared Hanson also having a strong outing on the mound. Will Desmarais worked himself on base with a walk for St. Dom’s and scampered to third when Mitch Lorenz reached first base on an error. Aaron Schmitz stepped up to the plate to drive a double to right-center, scoring Desmarais. Lorenz then scored on a passed ball.

“Both clubs made the plays in the field, pitchers threw strikes,” said Blackman. “Both teams had opportunities to make plays defensively as far as plays at the plate and they made them. We knew it would come down to a key hit and Aaron got it for us when we needed it.”

Schmitz said a little tip in practice came into play in his at bat.

“Coach has been hitting in practice with me and less is more,” Schmitz said. “I figured I would cut down on my swing and drive it into right-center gap. That ended out working perfectly.”

Johnson set down the Ramblers in the top of the seventh for his fourth consecutive 1-2-3 inning to send the Saints to the Western Class C Regional final, scheduled for Wednesday against the winner of Monday’s Dirigo/Hall-Dale tilt.

Johnson allowed only three singles and eight strikeouts.

“Zack was on his game, throwing all three of them for strikes which was the key,” Blackman said. “Even though the (three) base hits they got were seeing eye singles through the infield, it just felt he was on his game. On him being on his game, it allowed us a little extra time to get (runs)

St. Dom’s (16-2) had a rally going in the second inning with Schmitz and Mike Bryant both getting on base. Winthrop defense came to the defense of Hanson, gunning both players at the plate to keep the game scoreless.

Hanson completed all six innings, scattering two hits and walking six batters.

Blackman said Hanson was able to keep the Saints batters off balance and get them on their front foot throughout the game.

Zack Steele notched the Ramblers final hit in the top of the third and reached third. Johnson kept Hanson from driving Steele in as he dropped a curve ball on the outside part of the plate to earn the strikeout.

“It set in that would be a close one and I had to be sharp or they would get a couple,” Johnson said. “That guy (in the third inning) was key. I felt if he would of scored it would have deflated our balloon a little. I made some pitches and the fielders made some outs.”

Fortin said there’s positives heading forward for Winthrop (13-4).

“We have a good ball club,” he said. “We are still young, most of these guys are sophomores and we will bounce back.”