BANGOR — As the late-May losing streak continued – four games, five, even six – Camden Hills baseball coach Jeff Hart could take solace in two things.

Pitching and defense.

“We just had to stick with it,” Hart said. “I remember those games. We couldn’t buy a run. Anytime we hit the ball hard, it was right at somebody. I told them we just had to stay persistent, and they did.”

On a rainy Tuesday afternoon at Mansfield Stadium, the sixth-seeded Windjammers beat fifth-seeded Winslow 3-1 in the Eastern Maine championship game to earn a berth in the Class B state finals for the first time since 1999.

Camden Hills (13-7) will take on defending state champion Greely at St. Joseph’s College in Standish at 4:30 p.m. Saturday. Greely, seeded third in Western Maine, beat No. 1 Cape Elizabeth 3-1 Tuesday in Standish to set up a rematch of the ’99 championship game, won 3-2 by Greely.

Timely hitting, stellar defense and a complete-game effort from senior Ben Rollins allowed Camden Hills to advance despite being outhit 8-3 Tuesday. The Windjammers jumped to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first and made it 3-0 in the second, scoring all their runs with two outs.

Michael Wolff lined a double over the head of Winslow left fielder Dameron Rodrigue to score Rollins and Daulton Wickenden. Rollins had been hit by the game’s first pitch and Wickenden reached after a strikeout when the ball popped out of the catcher’s mitt and toward the third-base dugout.

“It really was a big change with momentum in the game,” Wolff said. “It got us going.”

After a pair of two-out walks in the second, Dalton Oakes lined a single to left that scored Cam Gushee for a 3-0 lead. Camden Hills managed only one more hit the rest of the game and didn’t put another runner in scoring position against Nate Gagnon, who retired 12 of 13 in one stretch.

But the Windjammers made their early lead stand up by coming up with big plays in the field. Rollins got a called third strike over the outside corner to end the first with the bases loaded. He survived a stretch of four consecutive hits bridging the fourth and fifth thanks to a perfectly-executed pitchout and two strong efforts from the outfield.

Catcher Kyle Crans cut down a would-be Winslow base stealer following a leadoff walk in the fourth and Wolff, playing right field, ended the inning by cutting down a runner at third on a hit-and-run single.

“Our outfield was tremendous all day,” Hart said. “We made them pay for a couple of base-running mistakes. We played a little bit shallower and we made the right plays.”

Rodrigue led Winslow’s attack with three hits and scored in the third on a sacrifice fly by Robbie Petrovic resulting in a close play at the plate that made it 3-1. The Black Raiders (15-5) threatened again in the fifth when Rodrigue singled and Dylan Hapworth followed with a sharp drive headed to the left-field corner.

Gushee, playing left field because one of the three starting outfielders (Matt Crockett) reported for basic training with the Marine Corps following a 7-2 regional semifinal victory over No. 2 Oceanside, made a lunging backhand stab after one hop and held Hapworth to a single.

“To be honest, I was getting ready for him to pull it,” Gushee said. “As soon as I saw it hit to me, I was just jumping on it. I had to stop it.”

Instead of a run in and Hapworth on second or third, Winslow had runners on first and second, where they remained as Rollins induced a fly to center and struck out two in a row.

“He made a great play on that,” Rollins said of Gushee. “That’s a great example of how deep we are.”

Rollins retired nine of the last 10, yielding only an infield single with two down in the seventh, to secure the title.

“A lot of grit went into getting here,” Rollins said. “It takes a lot of heart.”