It's been 26 years since East Lyme High School has played in ... and won ... a state championship baseball game, something the Vikings will finally do again Saturday night at 7 when they face North Haven in the CIAC Class L tournament final at Palmer Field in Middletown.

But East Lyme coach Jack Biggs insists his team isn't feeling the pressure.

"We talk about just staying loose and having fun, and that's what this magical run is all about," Biggs said.

East Lyme, the 13th seed, will have a shot at redemption and a sense of completion after falling in the state semifinals last season. Biggs and his team, however, aren't treating it any differently.

The whole season has been a battle, Biggs said. East Lyme (18-8) spent all season playing its home games at Dodd Stadium in Norwich because of drainage problems at the high school, which made its field and dugout unsafe and unusable. Twenty-two games on the road was the result.

Then there was the competitive schedule against the likes of Waterford, which the Vikings played twice, Montville, which played for the Class M state championship on Friday night, and Norwich Free Academy the Eastern Connecticut Conference Large Division champion and No. 1 seed in Class LL, helping to make Saturday just another game.

"We battled," Biggs said. "We battle every single game, and that goes to show you what type of character guys we do have."

The toughest challenge East Lyme has faced, however, is already in its rear-view mirror: its earlier tournament games.

"I told them (Wednesday) that, you know, we got through the toughest two parts of the tournament which is the quarterfinals and semifinals," Biggs said. "Once you get past those, that weight on your shoulders gets knocked off and you can play a little bit more relaxed because you know that you've made it to the finals. You know that you're kind of playing with house money now."

The nothing-to-lose attitude, looseness and consistency have been three of East Lyme's marquee characteristics all season, and, despite the the circumstances, Biggs said none of that has changed.

At practice on Thursday, he has noticed the usual looseness in his players that has been instilled by his coaching staff. He doesn't know much about No. 22 North Haven (15-9), but also doesn't seem to care. He is keeping the concentration on his own team, not the opposition.

"They're just loose, having fun and just being high school kids," Biggs said, "and that's, I believe, the best way to approach any type of tournament, any type of big game."

And for extra motivation, Biggs doesn't plan on telling his team anything new before East Lyme steps onto Palmer Field on Saturday. There isn't much left to tell.

"We're just gonna go out there and say the same thing we've done the past two weeks," he said. "We're gonna go out there and play consistent baseball, play for each other, go play for all the guys that have played in this program."