Groton — The Mystic Schooners have spent the majority of their summer giving opposing New England Collegiate Baseball League pitchers agita, battering them from Plymouth, Mass., to Montpelier, Vt.

That wasn’t the case on a steamy Wednesday night, as Mystic couldn’t catch a break against the Sanford Mainers. It certainly looked like it was star-crossed again when Nick Mascelli popped up to centerfield with two on and the score tied in the bottom of the seventh.

“I did think he (Zach Jancarski) caught it,” Mascelli said. “I was a little aggravated.”

Jancarski didn’t. He lunged at the ball and trapped it, allowing Brett Bond to score the go-ahead run as the Schooners won 3-1 in Game 1 of the best-of-three championship series at Fitch High School.

Mystic can win the title with a win Thursday night at Sanford (6:30). Game 3 is Friday at Fitch, if necessary.

The Schooners (34-16) had just two hits when Bond (Missouri) clobbered a pitch to right-centerfield to lead off the Mystic seventh tie the score at 1.

Bond’s shot looked like a home run.

It bounced off the top of the fence and back onto the field for a double.

Pinch hitter Taishi Terashima (St. Bonaventure) walked with one out. Mascelli followed with his RBI single.

“The baseball gods get you back,” Mascelli, the Wagner senior, said with a smile. “That’s the way it works.”

Mystic lapped the rest of the NECBL in many offensive categories during the regular season, including batting average (.295), on-base percentage (.396) and runs (6.6 average per game).

It certainly looked like it would be the same old, same old when Mascelli clocked the third pitch he saw for a home run to lead off the Schooners’ half of the first inning.

Mystic managed one other hit over the next six innings.

“We weren’t really crisp today offensively,” Schooners manager Phil Orbe said. “I thought we were a little bit flat-footed for some reason (and) un-athletic looking, and it could’ve had something to do with their starter (Cole Whitney of St. John’s) throwing very well.

“It wasn’t our prettiest performance, but the guys really battled and hung in there defensively where one pitch here, one misplay there, could’ve led to a different outcome.”

Bond hit an eighth-inning double to score Groton's Aaron Hill (UConn) in the eighth inning. 

Mike Landestoy (Texas Christian) hit a solo home run for Sanford (30-20), which gave itself more chances to win than the Schooners. It left two on with one out in the third inning. It loaded the bases with no outs in the fourth inning. Mystic starter Jonathan Signore (Fairfield) shut the Mainers down by striking out out the next three batters.

Sanford loaded the bases with two outs in the fifth inning, but again, nothing.

Signore scattered five hits over 6.1 innings with one earned run and nine strikeouts.

“He got up to 85 (pitches) today and it was a little bit more than we wanted,” Orbe said, “but he gave us everything he had. Very impressive."

Reliever Carson Teel (Oklahoma State) got the win, allowing one hit over 2.2 innings.

“He starts school on Monday,” Orbe said of Teel. “Initially, he was going to go home on Aug. 6. His coach (Josh Holliday) told him to stick it out. … Regardless of what happens, he’s leaving the morning after our next game and it’s going to take him a day to drive back.

“He stayed for us, and I can’t say enough about that. He was obviously great for us tonight.”

n.griffen@theday.com