NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Graham McIntire provided much of the offensive punch for the North Adams SteepleCats in a Game 1 loss to the Sanford Mainers Monday night in the teams’ NECBL North Division Semifinals series, then drove in the SteepleCats’ lone run during regulation in Game 2 Tuesday.

So it was no surprise when McIntire led off the bottom of the 11th with a full-count walk and later scored to send North Adams to a 2-1 victory at Joe Wolfe Field in North Adams, Massachusetts, forcing a winner-take-all Game 3 tonight in Sanford.

McIntire ran up a 3-2 count against Sanford reliever Aaron Casper, the Mainers’ third pitcher of the night who was in for his second inning of work. The free pass marked the first SteepleCat base runner since the sixth inning ”“ a span of 14 straight batters retired by Sanford pitchers. McIntire then moved to second as Hunter Lee laid down a bunt on a 1-2 pitch, and Joe DeLuca provided the heroics with a single to left to bring home McIntire.

The game started off as a pitchers’ duel and stayed that way the whole game. Mainers starter Joey Abraham issued six walks, but allowed just one run on two hits in six innings of work. His counterpart, North Adams starter Matt Kostalos, worked around a pair of first-inning walks and set down 11-consecutive batters at one point before finally giving up a run on a two-out RBI single by David Schanz in the seventh. Kostalos allowed four hits and walked four, but looked dominant at times with eight strikeouts.

“He did a phenomenal job. He’s thrown a lot against us, and the last few times out we’ve had trouble with him,” Mainers manager Aaron Izaryk said of Kostalos. “He’s one of the most improved pitchers in the league. We rattled him around pretty hard in June, and it’s impressive what he’s done (since).”

Abraham’s lone blemish came in the third, as Michael Babb led off with a four-pitch walk. Babb barely made it back to first as Parker Perez popped out to Abraham, but then stole second to get into scoring position. McIntire then singled up the middle to bring home Babb, giving McIntire his fourth RBI of the series.

Kostalos was able to pitch himself out of a couple jams, including striking out Brendan Skidmore on a 3-2 pitch with two on and two outs in the top of the first. He also left the bases loaded by striking out Skidmore again to end the sixth. Kostalos was aided by a couple big defensive plays, including a connection from Babb in left to Robert Calabrese at catcher to Jim Haley at third to gun down Harrison Wenson trying to go from first to third on Schanz’ RBI single. Perez gunned down Shaine Hughes trying to do the same thing on a Dalton Thomas single in the eighth.

The Mainers got lights-out relief from Iannick Remillard, who took over for Abraham on the mound. Remillard retired all nine batters he faced over three innings from the seventh to the ninth, including four by strikeout.

“He did more than what we could expect from him,” Izaryk said of Remillard. “He got us a chance, gave us three zeroes.”

Casper pitched a 1-2-3 10th, with a pair of strikeouts, before walking McIntire to start the 11th.

Derek Baker had a rocky three-inning stint on the mound in relief of Kostalos. He allowed three hits, but struck out two  batters, and more importantly didn’t give up the go-ahead run. Jared Habershaw pitched a perfect top of the 11th.

“I just think it’s a credit to their pitching staff. I think our guys were doing the right things and competing at the plate ”¦ and that’s a credit to them more than what we’re doing wrong, I think,” Izaryk said of his team not being able to take advantage of a 7-3 edge in hits and four batters stranded in scoring position. “You got to push across more than one run in that game, but I thought we played really well.”

The Mainers now return home to Goodall Park, looking to keep their season alive and advance to the NECBL North Division Finals for the second year in a row.

“All hands on deck tomorrow. We got to take it one inning at a time and see if we can play from the lead. It’s been the same as the last two games ”“ playoff baseball. You got to execute the game and see if you can make a big play,” said Izaryk.

— Sports Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.