Throughout the entire Division II championship game, there were signs — like the “Go Saints” banner hanging across a top-floor window of a Hilton Garden room — and opportunities aplenty pointing the St. Thomas of Dover baseball team toward championship gold.

But a defiant and determined Lebanon (18-2) squad provided a steel curtain roadblock throughout a dramatic game until the bottom of the 10th inning when the Saints (19-1) finally cashed in to claim a 4-3 victory.

Arran Maran reached on an error, Lebanon’s seventh of the game. The third-seeded squad had bent before — making mistakes and putting the potential game-winning run in scoring position in three of the previous four innings — but hadn’t broke.

The lead changed four times in the game, but the clubs had troubles capitalizing when opportunity surfaced after the Saints tied the game in the fifth.

Steve Hemming struck a one-out single, the club’s first in four innings. And then the ultimate sign of change stepped up to the plate in the form of Craig Teed, stepping to the plate for the first time all season. He had relieved Saints starter Jordan Bean in the top of the 10th.

“He doesn’t even take batting practice,” said Bean of classmate Teed (6-1), two of 13 recently graduated St. Thomas seniors, many making their third commute from the Seacoast to the championship game hoping to secure the first school baseball title since 2004.

The soon-to-be engineering major at Worcester Polytechnic Institute bunted down the first base line. Lebanon hovered over it, waiting for the ball to veer an inch to the right and go foul. It remained fair. “It was rolling nice and stayed on course,” said Teed. “Now I finished the season batting 1,000, one-for-one.”

With the bases loaded, Josh Terry took three balls. St. Thomas coach Marc Schoff conferred with his senior, hitting ninth in the order. The crowd of nearly 1,000 at Northeast Delta Dental Stadium figured coach would insist Terry take the next two pitches.

Nope. “I told him to take one and get set to mash the next one,” said Schoff. Terry just missed walloping a fastball offering, but produced a fly to left, just deep enough for fellow senior Maran to tag up and slide home with the title.

“I had a feeling the whole time that we would do this and Lebanon made it tough. We hustled out any chance we got and kept believing,” said Maran.

“They were everything as advertised,” said Schoff of Lebanon. Starter Brady Boisvert held St. Thomas (averaging seven runs a game and hitting .345 as a team) to four hits in eight innings. Cody Pelletier reached base four times and scored twice. Cooper Hardy doubled and made several great stabs at third.

“(Lebanon) didn’t deserve to lose. We know how that feels,” said Schoff. “Our seniors, they’ve been through it. They’ve been in the other dugout, carried home that small plaque and those silver medals. In a way I wished the two teams met at the plate in the 10th and agreed to split it.”

Doing that might have prolonged the St. Thomas dance. Schoff wasn’t looking forward to parting with the 13 seniors. They finished second to Seacoast rival Portsmouth in 2009 and 2011. In April they rallied from a three-run deficit to snap the Clippers’ national record 89-game win streak. And they claimed a walk-off win.

“It’s a lot better than the second-place medal sitting in my room that I looked at every morning. Now I’m replacing it with a first-place one,” said Bean, who struck out 11 in nine innings.

“I can’t even begin to imagine how much I’m going to miss these seniors,” said Schoff. “But, we’ll forever be linked as the 2012 champs.”

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Though disappointed, Merrimack ace Tom Hudon could still manage a smile after the extra-inning 5-4 defeat to Division I top-seed Concord. Why? The talented St. Anselm College-bound southpaw has the proper perspective.

“We had a great season,” said Hudon. “The odds were against us. We started 0-3 and the team had low morale. We fought back with a good streak (13 straight wins, 11 by shut out) and then lose our coach (Ryan Anderson) and athletic director (Andy Krahling).” Both resigned before the semifinal victory over confusion dealing with restrictions regarding Anderson’s two-game suspension.

“We ate lunch every day with our AD, and coach was the source of our team spirit. It felt like everything was stacked against us. We made what we could of it. We did the best we could. We should be proud,” said Hudon.

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Before reaching high school varsity age, Hopkinton’s baseball Class of 2012 won a Babe Ruth state title. As high schoolers, they sandwiched quarterfinal appearances around a sophomore trip to the Final Four before claiming the Division III title a few days after graduating from high school.

“Right now this means more to me than the diploma,” said Sam Bonifant, pointing to the winners’ medallion draped around his neck after his four-hit shutout effort against defending champion Campbell of Litchfield, 4-0.

Bonifant intends to receive another diploma, following his four-year stint at Elon University. He’ll never have another chance to win a high school championship.

Hopkinton’s title provided Sam McManus bragging rights at home. Older brother Jake started four years at Hopkinton without advancing to the title game. Upon 2006 graduation, he played four years at Wentworth, where Sam will matriculate and play ball.

“He’s always giving me a hard time about how good (Hopkinton) was back in his day. Now I’ve got something on him,” said Sam McManus.

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Fountain of youth: Campbell coach Jim Gorham described his 2011 championship team as young. They remained so this season, returning to the title game with just three seniors on the roster, but two-time Division IV champion Sunapee has had fewer birthday parties than any Championship Saturday team participant. The Lakers suited up three eighth graders, four freshmen and only four seniors.

“It’s probably more exciting than anything I know to probably being the youngest kid playing on a high school championship team,” said Ben Robinson, an eighth grader and Sunapee’s starting first baseman.

“We seniors have enjoyed being with each other. It seems like we’ve played three sports together for four years,” said catcher Brian Brewster of his classmates TJ Wacholtz, Brett Simpson and Troy Fowler. “We pulled the young kids in right away. We picked on them once in a while, but it was all in fun. We’re family.”

Eric Emmerling covers high school baseball and softball for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Write him at eemmerling@unionleader.com.