SCARBOROUGH — When you match up against a perennial championship contender in any sport, you know you need to play your best game of the season to get the win.

That was the case on Saturday when No. 4 Biddeford traveled to No. 1 Scarborough for a Western Maine Class A semifinal softball clash. Unfortunately for the Tigers, one bad inning was all it took for the top-seeded Red Storm to take advantage and pick up a 6-5 win.

Biddeford took a 2-0 lead early thanks to Abbie Paquette, who hit a solo home run in the first and knocked in another run in the top of the third with a double.

The Red Storm rallied back in the bottom of the third with a six-run inning, which ended up being all the runs it needed.

“That one big inning hurt us,” said Biddeford coach Ray Magnant. “I wish we would have cut that down a little bit, but I’m just proud of how the girls played their butts off today, kept us in the game the whole time and gave ourselves a shot at the end.”

The Tigers fought back with one run in the fifth and a two-run single by Erin Martin in the sixth to cut the lead to 6-5.

“These girls have been fighting. We have been getting down early on and we’ve been fighting back all year long,” said Magnant, who was happy with his team’s effort. “There is a lot of fight in these girls, they do a nice job and you can’t ask for anything better.”

That fighting mentality continued in the top of the seventh as Brook Davis reached with a one-out single and could have possibly scored if a screaming line drive off the bat of Jocelyn Moody wasn’t nabbed by Scarborough first baseman Kaleigh Scoville, who made a diving catch and touched first to double up Davis and end the game.

“That last shot was a great hit. If that gets through, we score Brooky and it’s a tie game,” said Magnant.

Brittany Roy led Biddeford with three hits and Paquette, who also came on to pitch in relief, finished with the two big hits early in the contest. Martin finished with two hits and Charlotte White added a single and scored once.

Magnant was extremely proud of his club and also gave a ton of credit to Scarborough, which heads to the Western Maine Class A final for the ninth straight season.

“Scarborough is a great program. They do all the little things right and that’s what wins ball games,” said Magnant. “It’s a good feeder system, everyone plays travel ball … Scarborough is going to be even better in the years to come. There is a lot of talent coming up.”

The Biddeford coach, who finished his first year with a 14-4 record, believes this year was a step in the right direction for the Tigers’ program.

“When you stay in a game like this with that kind of a program, you have to be excited,” said Magnant.

Magnant made sure he stressed that point to his team after the game.

“This is huge. This is another step. I told the girls, ”˜look, you might have lost today, but that’s another step. You can play with this team,’” said Magnant. “Going into next year, we are only losing one starter, so it’s huge for us, it’s huge for the program and I think we will be back here next year.”

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @JournalTsports.