Ledyard — It was all going so well for unbeaten East Lyme.

The visiting Vikings had a 4-0 lead with two outs in the Ledyard seventh. The bases were empty. Starter Ryan Kane was pitching a three-hitter.

Six batters later, the Colonels had strung together three straight hits — followed by three successive walks — and the lead was down to a run with the bases loaded.

And then things got weirder.

Ledyard head coach Scott Chiasson gambled and had Weston Bruce try to steal home with two strikes. The sophomore was tagged out at the plate, and East Lyme escaped with a 4-3 win in an Eastern Connecticut Conference Division I baseball game on Tuesday.

“High school baseball at its finest,” Vikings coach Jack Biggs said with a smile. “We couldn’t get the last out.”

The Colonels had East Lyme on the ropes when Chiasson took his calculated risk.

“The pitcher (reliever Trevor Delesdernier) was giving (a steal) to us,” Chiasson said. “His back was to me and Weston at third. (Bruce) was halfway down the line before he even started (toward the plate). He had it. He could’ve high-fived the hitter (Max Ebdon) if he had just kept on going.

“It’s not the key situation you want there as a coach, but I saw an opportunity and I tried to take it. He got confused thinking he couldn’t cross home plate because he thought he was going to cross home before the kid’s pitch came in. He was like, ‘Coach, I was too close.’ It was an easy run, but he was confused.

"I understand. He’s a young kid, a sophomore.”

East Lyme (7-0, 3-0) is ranked third in the inaugural GameTimeCT.com/New Haven Register Top 10 poll, and the only unbeaten team left in the always baseball-rich ECC.

“Going into the season, we had a lot of question marks,” Biggs said. “We graduated a lot of big-time players (from last season’s Class L runner-up). We didn’t know what was going to happen, but these guys have stepped into some big-time roles, regardless of their age or grade. They’ve done a pretty good job.”

Luke Leonard had two hits and scored for the Vikings and Jared Hunt hit a two-run double.

Ken Turner had an RBI double and scored for the Colonels (5-3, 2-1). He also scattered five hits over six innings with nine strikeouts.

East Lyme received a few breaks prior to game-ending play at the plate. There was no score when Chris Malcom singled to lead off the sixth inning and went to second base on a passed ball.

Leonard dropped a bunt to sacrifice Malcom to third. The ball crept up the third base line and looked to be veering foul when catcher Nick Smith picked it up, putting runners at the corner. Matt Malcom’s RBI double scored Chris Malcom.

Delesdernier was intentionally walked with one out. Jackson Deweese followed by hitting a ground ball toward third, but an errant throw home scored Leonard. Hunt added a two-run double, and suddenly East Lyme had a 4-0 lead.

Kane had retired the first two Colonels in the bottom of the seventh when Smith doubled. Turner singled him home, and Riley Gagnon doubled to put runners at second and third.

Kane (six hits, five strikeouts) walked to load the bases and was replaced by Trystan Levesque.

“I caught that line drive to get the second out, (and) I just got too happy and thought I was going to finish it,” Kane said. “But I couldn’t find the zone. And then they started hitting it, too.”

Bruce and Owen Wheeler received successive walks to force in two more runs, prompting Biggs to bring in Delesdernier.

“We’ve been doing it (coming back) all year,” Chiasson said. “We have been probably in three or four of our wins.

“We made it a game and were one swing away.”

n.griffen@theday.com