Don’t stop the music just yet, because Cinderella has one more dance.

The No. 7-seeded Biddeford Tigers continued their long run to a state baseball championship on Tuesday night by capturing the Class A Western championship with a 4-2 win over No. 4 Westbrook in eight innings at St. Joseph’s College.

The Tigers won the game by scoring on a wild pitch in the top of the eighth, a play that caused the Biddeford fans, who had been loud all game, find a new level of cheering as their dreams of a championship started to come true.

Biddeford, which has been in a win-or-go-home situation since the Tigers’ final regular season game against Bonny Eagle, will now go on to play Eastern Maine championship Oxford Hills in the Class A state championship game at noon on Saturday at St. Joseph’s College.

The Tigers were led by senior pitcher Trevor Fleurent, who has been strong all postseason, winning the regular season finale against Bonny Eagle to lock up a playoff spot for the Tigers and then pitching 10 innings in an 8-1 win over Scarborough in the quarterfinals. Against Westbrook, Fleurent limited the Blue Blazes to just five hits while striking out 10.

After the game, Fleurent said he felt he had one of his best games of the season “by far.”

“I didn’t want to stop pitching,” he said, while adding that he needed to take care of his arm in order to be ready for the state title game this weekend. “It’s a bit tender,” he said, with a laugh. “I’m going to have ice it up for Saturday.”

Scott Heath took the mound for the Blazes and had a strong game in a losing effort. Heath allowed just eight hits while striking out eight.

The game was a tight one throughout, with the teams trading single runs in the first and third innings. Heath and Fleurent then both settled down and put up zeros on the scoreboard for the next four innings.

After such a closely played game, it seemed inevitable that the two teams would need extra innings to settle things, and that’s just what happened.

Unfortunately for Westbrook, which had struggled defensively during the game, things started to become unraveled in the inning. After getting Biddeford’s Scott Callahan to ground out to start the inning, Heath hit Tyler Audie, the third time Heath had hit a batter during the game.

Biddeford’s next batter, Tyler Parker then hit a high fly ball to center that appeared catchable, but Blazes’ center fielder Joe Quinlan appeared to lose the ball in the lights and it dropped in for a double.

“The ball was hit pretty deep to center, so I got a pretty big lead,” said Audie, who advanced to third on the play. “Once I got about halfway, I realized he lost it in the lights, so I just took off for third. I knew I could get there, I felt like I had enough speed to get there, get down and get dirty.”

Now with runners on second and third, disaster struck for the Blazes. A Heath pitch got by catcher Tom Lemay for a wild pitch, allowing Audie to score. After the game, Audie said that Biddeford coach Casey Roy had told the team going into the eighth to look for opportunities like a wild pitch to score a run. Once that happened, Audie said instinct just took over. “That ball scooted away and I just broke for the plate,” he said.

The Tigers would add another run as Chris Jones knocked in Parker on a double later in the inning, and the Tigers had a two-run lead and three outs to go to clinch a berth in the state title game.

The Blazes tried to rally, getting a leadoff single from Quinlan, but Fleurent buckled down and got Sam Stauble to fly out to center, Heath to strike out and then got Zach Collett to ground back to the pitcher to end the game, touching off an eruption of Biddeford players and coaches from the dugout as the Tigers celebrated their regional championship.

Westbrook coach Mike Rutherford said that his team was obviously disappointed after the loss, but he said that his team would work during the offseason to improve and take another shot at ending a long state championship drought for the Blazes.

“We just have to play hard this summer and get better,” Rutherford said, adding that while the Blazes had some problems defensively, he was happy with how Heath was able to keep them in the game. “I’ve got Scotty Heath on the mound and we get beat, I have to tip my cap to them,” he said.

In fact, Heath kept the Blazes in contention all game, allowing just two runs in the early going. The Tigers jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when Fleurent scored on an RBI single from Audie. The Tigers also got a run from Parker in the third.

Quinlan scored the first Westbrook run in the first, leading off with a single, scoring on a Collett RBI single. The Blazes got their second run in the third inning as Tom Pratt scored on a single from Stauble.

After the game was over, Audie said that when he crossed the plate in the eighth with what proved to be the winning run, he was “pumped.”

“I mean this is huge for us,” Audie continued. “Coming in as the seventh seed, no one imagined we would be here right now. We know we can play with most teams, and we showed it tonight.”

Roy said he has been impressed with the way his team has played during their playoff run, facing multiple situations where a loss meant the end of the season, and winning every time.

“The playoffs started with one game to go in the season, it was win or we’re out,” he said. “We were in a must-win situation against Bonny Eagle, against Scarborough, against Windham and now against Westbrook. I know we’re going to come out and do what we do, and hopefully get the win on Saturday.”

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