East Lyme — It's just that the East Lyme High School baseball team keeps finding a way. Sixteen straight victories this season to erase an 0-4 start. Three straight state tournament semifinal appearances and four since 2010.

"You've got to be able to perform on the big stage and these kids are having fun doing that right now," East Lyme coach Jack Biggs said. "We live to practice one more day."

On Saturday, the No. 4 Vikings advanced to the Class L state tournament semifinals with a 12-0 quarterfinal win over No. 5 Watertown, which by all accounts planned to pitch ace left-hander and St. John's-bound Nick Mondak against East Lyme before Mondak was injured during Friday's practice.

Mondak's replacement, Zane Molee, lasted just a third of the inning, and East Lyme took advantage of four Watertown errors in all, scoring four runs in the first inning, two in the second and four more unearned runs in the third on the way to a 10-0 lead.

Meanwhile, East Lyme senior right-hander Dylan Feeney pitched a complete-game three-hitter, retiring the final 14 hitters, and sophomore right-fielder Matt Malcom was 3-for-4 with a double, two-run homer in the fifth and five RBI. The Vikings (19-5) played errorless defense behind Feeney, who threw just 69 pitches, 52 for strikes.

East Lyme moved on to meet No. 1 Bristol Eastern in the second game of a Class L semifinal doubleheader at 7 p.m. Tuesday at Palmer Field in Middletown. The Lancers eliminated No. 9 East Haven 6-1 Saturday.

"We wanted to face (Mondak) today," Biggs said. "But we had to play our game. Guys sometimes give too much focus on the other team. We have to take care of what we can take care of. Defense wins tournaments and we got a great performance today out of Dylan Feeney."

Feeney, who struck out seven and walked none, said it was the best he felt this season. Feeney started the tournament opener, a 5-3 win over Guilford, before tiring and needing relief help for the victory.

"Earlier, he needed a lot of rest between starts," Biggs said of Feeney. "We kept telling him, 'Throw more. Throw more.' Today he threw on four days rest and he threw at least 80 percent strikes."

"He pitched really well," Malcom said. "He had his composure."

East Lyme's Matt Spang led off the first inning with a sharp ground ball to the hole at shortstop, which went for an infield single. Alex Tryon was hit by a pitch and Matt Abbey walked. A comebacker to the pitcher by Bennett Coe was fielded and thrown over the catcher's head for two runs. Miles Coe walked.

With one out, Malcom hit a grounder to third base, which was thrown home to get Bennett Coe, but Coe slid by the tag for the third run and Dylan Hatajik rifled an RBI single to left field to make it 4-0, as the Vikings batted around. Malcom added a two-run single in the second.

East Lyme sent nine men to the plate once again in the third inning, in which Watertown threw the ball over first baseman Daniel Graziano's head twice, leading to four more runs. Tryon, Miles Coe and Malcom (double to the left-center field gap) had hits in the inning.

Malcom's homer in the fifth sailed over the left field fence.

Spang added two hits for the Vikings, who reached the Class L championship game last season before falling to North Haven 3-2.

"I knew were going to do well this season as soon as we won our first game after the losses," Feeney said. "We have a family."

"We were unsure what was going to happen today (against Watertown)," Malcom said. "We were expecting hard throwing. It was tough to adjust. But we hit the ball well; we got off to a nice start. It feels good."

v.fulkerson@theday.com