WATERVILLE – Old Town High Coach Dave Utterback watched the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference Class B championship game last Friday to scout possible playoff opponent Waterville.

“We thought we had a little bit of an idea of what we were going to go against,” Utterback said. “But until you get them firsthand, you’re not really sure what you’re going to get.”

Utterback and his team got a crash course on Thursday as the top-seeded Purple Panthers (15-2) rapped out 14 hits, got a strong pitching performance from Kyle Bishop and played steady defense for a 12-2 victory in an Eastern Maine Class B baseball quarterfinal shortened to six innings because of the mercy rule.

Waterville will host No. 4 Mt. Desert Island (11-6) at 1 p.m. Saturday in the semifinals. No. 9 Old Town (12-6) had an eight-game win streak snapped.

Eight Waterville players had at least one hit and every starter reached base. But it took the Panthers a trip through the batting order to figure out Old Town starter Gabe Melmed, who relied on breaking pitches to keep the Panthers off balance.

“That’s his game plan. He doesn’t throw all that hard. He’s going to try and mix his locations, get guys out on their front foot with change-ups and curveballs,” Utterback said.

“He was a second-team, all-conference pitcher for us, and he hasn’t seen a lineup like this, either. The second and third time through, they really started figuring him out a little bit.”

Waterville scored five times in the third inning and added five in the fourth. First baseman J.T. Whitten got it going with a two-run home run in the third.

“I was just waiting for a good pitch on 2 and 0. (Melmed) threw it down the middle,” Whitten said.

The Panthers got three more runs in the inning, all with two outs, when Bishop, Tyler Bouchard, Aidan Fitzgerald, Racean Wood and Ryan Veilleux hit consecutive singles.

“Top to bottom, that’s as good (a lineup) as we’ve seen. One through nine was just relentless all the way through,” Utterback said.

Waterville Coach Don Sawyer had his hitters make an adjustment to make Melmed’s stuff appear faster.

“I thought we did a good job just moving forward at the plate. Make it appear to be a little bit faster instead of just sitting there waiting for it. Go up there and put it in play,” Sawyer said.

Waterville added five runs in the fourth inning. After Cam Sawyer led off with a walk and Whitten was hit by a pitch, Tim Locke hit an RBI single. Bishop, who went 4 for 4 and scored three runs, doubled home a run, and Locke scored on a wild pitch. Bishop scored on an error, and Bouchard gave Waterville a 10-2 lead on Wood’s sacrifice fly.

That was plenty of offense for Bishop, who gave up four hits and three walks while striking out six.

“(Bishop) had his change-up going real well,” Utterback said. “That was probably his bread-and-butter pitch. He was using his change-up to set up his fastball, and our guys were kind of guessing a little bit.”

The Coyotes scored two unearned runs in the fourth when Andrew Richardson doubled home Cameron Archer and later scored on a double steal.