BREWER, Maine — Old Town High School senior shortstop Mikayla Richards said she had been having a hard time timing up the pitches of hard-throwing Winslow High School senior righthander Hillary Libby.

So when she went up to the plate to lead off the seventh inning, “I knew I needed to lock in and hit the first good strike.”

Richards did just that as she lined a double to left center before stealing third and scoring on a wild pitch to break a 1-1 tie and give Old Town a 2-1 victory in their Class B North championship game Wednesday at Coffin Field.

It was the eighth straight win for fourth seed Old Town, which is now 16-3 and will face York in Saturday’s 4 p.m. state final in Brewer. York beat Greely of Cumberland 4-3 in the South final.

Third seed Winslow had its 11-game winning streak snapped and finished up at 17-2.

“The pitch was a little outside and I loaded up and let my hands go,” said Richards. “It felt really good. I hit it off the sweet spot.”

It was just the second hit of the game for Old Town and the first since the first inning, when Caitlyn King hit a two-out single.

Richards then smartly stole third because Winslow third baseman Paige Veilleux was playing in, anticipating a bunt from Lauren Gasaway.

“I saw her playing so I wanted to take advantage,” Richards said.

“That was a really smart baserunning play,” said Old Town coach Jenn Plourde. “She saw that the third baseman was up and she knew in advance we wanted to get her to third. That’s why we were trying to bunt. She played it really smart and it worked out perfectly for us.”

Gasaway struck out but Kayla Hayward reached on a fielder’s choice as Libby fielded her grounder and looked Richards back to third.

Libby then uncorked a wild pitch in the dirt which allowed Richards to score.

Old Town took the lead with an unearned run in the first inning as winning pitcher Olivia Albert reached on a two-out infield error, moved to second on King’s soft line-drive single into left center and to third on a wild pitch before scoring on a passed ball.

Winslow tied it in the fourth on a Paige Veilleux single, her stolen base and Natalie Greene’s crisp line-drive single to center.

Freshman righthander Albert pitched a complete game for her third playoff win, scattering seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

Winslow had scored 10 or more runs in 13 of its 16 regular season games.

“I did pretty good,” said Albert, who is now 8-1. “I threw mostly curveballs. I also threw some changeups to throw them off. My defense backed me up a lot. They made a lot of great plays. They definitely saved the game.”

“Not many pitchers throw curves,” said Winslow pitcher Libby. “It was harder to adjust to. We moved up in the box.”

“We didn’t hit like we usually do. We didn’t connect with our bats today,” said smooth-fielding Winslow senior center fielder Jenna Petrovic, who made three exceptional catches to take hits away from the Coyotes.

“Olivia had a lot of movement on her pitches again,” said Old Town catcher Natalie St. Louis.

“She did an amazing job. You can’t expect any more from a freshman,” said Plourde.

Libby also turned in a gem.

She allowed just the two hits while striking out eight and walking one. She threw 62 strikes among her 102 pitches.

“It wasn’t one of my better days. The mound was different. The field was completely different. Where I had my back foot, there was a little water spigot,” said Libby. “But I can’t let that affect how I play. I just went out there and played my hardest.”

“She was a very good pitcher,” said Richards. “She threw hard.”

Winslow’s Sarah Guimond was the game’s lone repeat hitter with a double and a single.