STANDISH — Yarmouth High brought its bats and one gutsy pitcher to the Class B title game Saturday, and the Clippers came away with their first state championship in softball.

Yarmouth kept the lineup moving with 12 hits and beat defending champion Hermon 7-5 at St. Joseph’s College.

No. 9 hitter Colleen Sullivan knocked in four runs with two singles and a triple.

Yarmouth starter Mari Cooper struck out seven and held Hermon (17-3) to seven hits. A line drive bruised the index finger on her right (pitching) hand in the fifth inning, but Cooper stayed in.

“That’s a great team standing over there,” said Hermon Coach Megan McCrum as she watched the Clippers celebrate. “They came out swinging the bat well.”

Yarmouth (17-3) took a 4-0 lead after three innings, helped by Sullivan, a junior outfielder who did not bat last year as the flex player.

“She’s worked extremely hard and she deserves this,” said Yarmouth Coach Amy Ashley, who kept Sullivan last in the order despite her .400 average.

“I love her in that spot,” Ashley said. “She sees good pitches and she puts the ball in play.”

Hermon put up three runs in the fourth, but Yarmouth scored one in the bottom half for a 5-3 lead.

In the top of the fifth, with a runner on and two outs, Cooper was hit by a line drive. It not only hit her thigh but also her right index finger. She still threw out the runner.

Cooper lay on the mound for a minute.

“I knew she would bounce back,” Ashley said. “There was no way I was taking her out.”

The injury made it difficult for Cooper to grip the ball properly.

“I don’t know how I did it,” she said of remaining in the game. “But I did it for the team.”

Two more Yarmouth runs made it 7-3.

In the sixth, Cooper walked her first batters of the game, putting two runners on, but she got out of the jam.

Two Hermon runners reached in the seventh on an error and a walk, and Hailey Perry doubled them in, closing to 7-5.

Last year Yarmouth lost a playoff game to Cape Elizabeth after being up 8-3 in the seventh.

“That Cape game was totally in my mind,” Cooper said. “I knew they could come back.”

But that memory only fueled Cooper. She induced a weak line drive to second baseman Sydney St. Pierre, who tossed to shortstop (and sister) Andrea St. Pierre at second for a game-ending double play.

“We’ve had dramatic endings all season so it’s only fitting,” Ashley said. “We believed in ourselves.”

That belief began early against Hermon’s outstanding pitcher, Karli Theberge.

In the second inning, Eleanor O’Gorman blooped a single over the shortstop. Michelle Robichaud sacrificed her to second, and then the Clippers loaded the bases when Cate Ralph was hit by a pitch and Sydney St. Pierre reached on a bunt single.

Sullivan blooped a single down the left-field line, scoring Gorman.

“It gave us the momentum,” Sullivan said.

With two outs in the third, Ralph singled home Catherine Thompson. St. Pierre worked a walk to load the bases, and Sullivan grounded a single to left, scoring two for a 4-0 lead.

Hermon got its runs in the fourth on three singles, an infield error and a sacrifice fly.

In the bottom of the fourth, Thompson singled and eventually scored on O’Gorman’s double down the right-field line.

The Clippers added two in the fifth, on Sullivan’s RBI triple and Kallie Hutchinson’s RBI single. Hutchinson went 3 for 4.

“We knew we had to put the ball in play and that’s what we did,” Hutchinson said.

And then the Clippers held on. And then they celebrated.

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