East Lyme — The New London American Legion team hasn’t always done things the easy way this summer.

New London raced out to a 12-0 start during the regular season and seemed destined to win Zone 6 when it was forced to forfeit five games for using an ineligible player.

Flash forward to Thursday’s American Legion Northern Division regional against Niantic. New London could’ve wrapped up the best-of-three series by winning Game 2.

Nah.

New London, which lost 3-2, got back on track in the decisive Game 3. Trevor Bolduc pitched a five-hitter, and Jeremy Santos singled and scored twice to pace New London to a 4-2 win at East Lyme High School.

“Coach Viv (Tom Vivirito) always says that we never do it the easy way,” Bolduc said. “We normally get it done, so he’s pretty proud of us.”

New London is among the eight teams advancing to the super regionals, which will be played Saturday and Sunday at sites and times to be announced.

Niantic won Zone 6 with a 22-5 record. New London (20-7) was second.

“When we had the bad situation come up with our forfeits, we just got together and said, ‘You know what — it doesn’t change our focus at all,’” Vivirito said. “‘We still want to do as well as we can; win as many games as we can.'

“Our goal was to win the Zone title. We didn’t win it, but we actually got back to the same place we would’ve been anyways. We pulled it out, we’re moving on. We reached our goals. It didn’t affect us. It made us more focused.”

New London’s win didn’t happen without some anxious moments, of course. It led 3-2 when Niantic loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third.

Miles Coe lined out to second baseman Jacob Parizo for the first out. Parizo fired over to first baseman Pieter Khoury just before Mike Morgan slid back to the bag for a double play.

“I told (Parizo) and Pieter that I’m getting them a cheeseburger at McDonald’s afterwards,” Bolduc said with a laugh. “That was huge.”

Bolduc struck out the next batter to end Niantic’s threat.

“It stunk that it had to come down to that,” Niantic manager Grant Livingston said. “It was looking really good for us.”

Matt Kane kept New London off balance in Game 2 as he threw a six-hitter. He came back and pitched three innings of relief in Game 3, too.

“He was begging me to start him,” Livingston said with a smile. “He’s going to be a good pitcher for us the next couple of years.”

New London put together some momentum late in Game 2. It strung together four hits in the bottom of the seventh and scored twice before stranding the tying run at third.

New London’s Cooper Robinson doubled the first pitch of Game 3.

“It let us know that we could still hit the ball,” Bolduc said about the end of Game 2. “It showed us that when we get that urgency, it gets a lot easier to hit.”

Santos (single, two runs) hit a ground ball that led to a throwing error, moving him to second base and scoring Robinson.

Santos took off toward third base when Justin Marceau hit into a fielder’s choice. He scored as the throw to third base was low and rolled away.

Gabriel Cotorreal singled, scored and stole two bases in Game 3 for New London, and Marceau hit an RBI double.

Logan Banker and Hunter Sheffield both singled and scored for Niantic in Game 3. Matt Malcom added an RBI single.

Alex Tryon went 2-for-3, including a double, and scored twice in Game 2. He singled and doubled in Game 3.

n.griffen@theday.com