BATTLE CREEK — Having a flame-thrower for an arm or a devastating array of breaking pitches is always nice, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to get hitters out.

Orchard Lake St. Mary’s junior pitcher Theo Piccirilli demonstrated that on Friday in a Division 2 state semifinal against Milan.

Guts and guile when he needed it most worked fine for Piccirilli, who battled through seven innings, and helped lead the Eaglets to a 5-3 win.

St. Mary’s advanced to its second state final in three years, where the Eaglets will meet East Grand Rapids for the championship at 12:30 p.m. today at C.O. Brown Stadium in Battle Creek.

East Grand Rapids has been an athletic thorn in the side of St. Mary’s the last couple of years.

Pioneer teams beat the Eaglets in five overtimes in the 2007 Division 3 football final, beat St. Mary’s handily in the football season opener last fall and rallied to beat St. Mary’s in overtime in the Division 2 lacrosse final last Saturday.

If St. Mary’s (16-19) wins, it’s believed it will become the first team in state history to win a baseball state title with a sub-.500 record.

“Theo has done that all year for us,” St. Mary’s head coach Nick DiPonio said of Piccirilli. “The biggest thing is that he throws strikes. He’s able to locate three different pitches and that’s what you need to be successful. He showed up again today. That team put a lot of pressure on us.”

Piccirilli scattered eight hits, walked just one and struck out two.

“They took good at-bats today,” Piccirilli said. “I have to credit my defense. They did a good job today. They tracked down every fly ball and my infielders did a good job.”

Now, St. Mary’s will look to make amends for what happened in the state final two years ago.

The Eaglets fell behind early to Mount Pleasant, 7-1, and saw a late rally fall short in a 7-4 loss.

“We were kind of nervous my freshman year,” said St. Mary’s junior outfielder Korey Hall, who was the team’s cleanup hitter for that game against Mount Pleasant. “With the team we got, we really want it. We have the fight and desire.”

St. Mary’s staked Piccirilli to a 5-0 lead after the top of the third before Milan started to chip away. The Big Reds scored one in the third, but the damage could’ve been worse, since Milan had runners on second and third with nobody out to start the inning.

The Big Reds then scored two runs in the fourth to cut the lead to 5-3, but again, it could’ve been worse.

Milan loaded the bases with two outs, but Piccirilli induced a pop-up to end the inning.

Piccirilli then retired the side in order in both the fifth and sixth innings before surviving some drama in the bottom of the seventh.

Milan put runners on first and third with one out, but Piccirilli induced a pop-up back to the mound and a fly ball to right field to end the game.

Offensively, the Eaglets got some timely hits and benefited from sloppy defensive play by Milan.

The Big Reds committed six errors in the game, including two in the first inning that led to a pair of St. Mary’s runs, and two more in the third that helped the Eaglets score three to take a 5-0 lead.

Hall went 2-for-4 with a run and Shane Halaas hit a two-run single in the fifth to lead the offensive attack for St. Mary’s, which will attempt to win its third state title since 1998.

Having such an opportunity might have been unforeseen by many entering the state tournament, but not the Eaglets because they played in the brutal Catholic League Central Division this year.

“I think I answer these questions every year about the record,” DiPonio said. “We understand the league that we play in and we understand what it does for our ballclub in terms of preparation. We see the best year in and year out and we battle. This year, those clubs were better than us. Now that we’re in the playoffs, we are a team that has confidence. We think we’ve played the best teams in the state of Michigan in our conference.”

Contact Keith Dunlap at keith.dunlap@oakpress.com