Norwich — The entire St. Joseph outfield crouched down on its knees, while four members of the infield — the second baseman, shortstop, pitcher and first baseman — lay stretched out in the torn-up dirt. Motionless. Stunned.

Right next to them, halfway between first and second base at Dodd Stadium, the entire Montville High School dugout emptied onto the field and mobbed junior Isaiah Mack, who had just hit the game-winning chopper past the St. Joseph defense in the bottom of the ninth inning.

Just one game after rallying from a 7-3 deficit, the No. 2-seeded Indians did it again, this time even more impressive than the first.

Down 6-0 with just six outs remaining, Montville scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth and then exploded for four runs in the seventh to send the game to extra innings, where Mack went on to hit the walk-off chopper into shallow center and propel his team into the CIAC Class M baseball finals.

The score was Montville 7, St. Joseph 6, giving the Indians a berth in Friday's state championship game against No. 4 Sheehan beginning at 7:05 p.m. at Palmer Field in Middletown. Sheehan topped No. 1 East Catholic 3-1, the top-ranked team in the New Haven Register Top 10 poll, Tuesday.

“They beat us the past two years in the playoffs, so we had to make sure it wasn't their third,” Mack said of St. Joseph.

Mack said the victory was a sort of revenge. Senior Jordan Zeppieri said once again that his team has “funk.” But Tuesday, Montville seemed to have magic, as the final four innings of the game couldn't have been more different from the first five.

St. Joseph struck early in the first inning to take an early 1-0 lead and the Cadets steadily added to their total with two more runs in the second.

Leading 3-0, St. Joseph scored again when Montville first baseman TT Bowens' attempt to throw out a runner at third scooted past Buddy Dewaine for one of three errors on the night for the Indians.

Montville couldn't find a reprieve on offense either, where St. Joseph pitcher Mike Rotundo held the Indians scoreless for five innings.

“He was battling us pitch for pitch,” Orbe said. “That was one of the better performances against us this year.”

But in the bottom of the sixth down 6-0, Montville finally found the break it had been looking for. Eric Ross singled into center and Quentin Duperry laid down a picture-perfect bunt down the third-base line as the Montville crowd began to cheer louder than it had all day.

With men on first and second, Zeppieri, who hit a three-run homer Friday against Oxford, sent a bases-clearing double to left-center field, prompting the Montville dugout to show its first bit of excitement.

“As soon as we scored those two runs, actually, we knew we were gonna win the ballgame,” Mack said.

Prophetic words. Two consecutive singles by Mack and Tommy McDonald started off things in the bottom of the seventh for Montville. Doug Delacruz sent a chopper to left that cut the deficit to 6-3 and Duperry laid down another bunt that brought the Indians to within two.

Zeppieri stepped to the plate and quickly fell behind in the count.

“I don’t feel it, I don’t feel the pressure anymore,” Zeppieri said, who attributes it to the “Mr. Clutch” T-shirt that he wears each game under his jersey.

The next pitch, Zeppieri sent a single to left field to cut the deficit to one. Bowens followed with a gapper to center that brought home the tying run.

In the bottom the ninth with the game still tied, St. Joseph coach Jim Chaves decided to intentionally walk Bowens and Dewaine after Jeremy Sagun's single, a decision that loaded the bases with two outs.

“I wasn't gonna get beat by two Division I players,” Chaves said.

And up to the plate stepped Mack, who’s batting north of .800 in his career at Dodd. He chopped the winning hit up the middle and the script from the beginning of the game had been completely rewritten.

“It’s a special group we have,” Orbe said, “it really is a special group.”