Norwich — Eastern Connecticut Conference baseball has arguably been a bigger free-for-all than normal this spring.

Name a team and one can indulge in a spin-off of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon.” To wit: Montville beat Waterford, which beat Bacon Academy, which beat East Lyme, which beat Ledyard, which beat Norwich Free Academy, which beat New London, which beat Plainfield, which beat Killingly, which beat Fitch, which beat Montville.

(Got all that?)

Montville has been the most consistent of the lot as it’s the only team with just one conference loss. On Friday, Buddy Dewaine pitched a one-hitter with six strikeouts to give the newly crowned Medium Division champion a 9-1 win over East Lyme in an ECC interdivision game at Dodd Stadium.

Montville, ranked third in the New Haven Register Top 10, is 15-2. Its other loss was to seventh-ranked Fairfield Warde, the defending Fairfield County Interscholastic Athletic Conference champion.

“We don’t have to rely on anybody to go out there and have an amazing game at the plate or in the field,” Dewaine said. “Our one-through-nine, they can all hit. Last game, our No. 9 hitter (Eric Ross), came up with a clutch double in the 10th inning (Thursday’s 4-2 win over Plainfield). Our seventh batter, Doug Delacruz, is a freshman and he’s on fire.

“One-through-nine we can all hit and I think that really helps.”

Isaiah Mack had two hits, three runs and an RBI for the Indians and Jordan Zeppieri had two hits, including a double, and three runs.

TT Bowens and Tommy McDonald each had two hits, including a double, and scored for Montville. Quentin Duperry, its No. 9 hitter Friday, added a two-run single, the only two-RBI hit of the game.

“They have a lot of consistency throughout their batting order,” East Lyme coach Jack Biggs said. “You look at their big guys, like Buddy and TT (Bowens) and Jordan (Zeppieri). And they have guys in the bottom of the lineup that can produce, too.”

The Vikings (11-5) are in the thick of the Large Division race despite graduation losses. They've beaten Fitch and Ledyard twice and have a shot to split the division title when they play host to NFA next Thursday.

“We graduated a lot of those kids from that (Class L semifinalist) team last year and all that great pitching,” Biggs said. “I didn’t know what to expect. To their credit, they’ve battled and they’ve gotten better and they’ve listened and they’ve worked hard with their craft.”

Owen Tretter singled and scored for the Vikings.

Montville led 2-1 after three innings when it pulled away. Mack led off the fourth with a single, moved to third on McDonald’s double and scored on Duperry’s fielder’s choice. McDonald scored on an error.

The Indians scored four in the fifth inning, highlighted by Duperry’s two-run single.

“I think a lot (of our success) has to do with our senior leadership,” Montville coach Phil Orbe said. “We’ve had a bunch of kids make big jumps from last year, particularly in the offseason. You go through the lineup and each guy has made a really good jump from the previous year.”

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED