Haddam — Third game of the season. Old Lyme beats Cromwell 9-1, dropping Cromwell to 0-3.

“We knew it wasn't going to mean much coming into this game,” Old Lyme coach Randy St. Germain said Saturday afternoon of the previous meeting. “(Cromwell coach Lew Pappariella) is one of the best coaches in the state. We lost seven starters (from last year); we had to replace seven kids and make it as far as we did.”

Sure enough, the fourth-seeded Cromwell High School baseball team repeated as Shoreline Conference tournament champion, beating No. 2 Old Lyme 4-2 at Haddam-Killingworth. Cromwell won the Shoreline title last year as the No. 8 seed.

Old Lyme (16-7) held a 1-0 lead through five innings behind a third-inning home run from Julian Muller, but left two runners on in each the fourth and the fifth, unable to give starting pitcher Hunter Thornton any kind of a cushion.

Cromwell (16-7) then scored three in the sixth, getting RBI singles from Zach Lombardo and Noah Budzik and a successful squeeze bunt by Nick Polizonis, and one in the seventh on a balk to build a 4-1 advantage.

Old Lyme got a leadoff double in the bottom of the seventh from Eli St. Germain, who scored on a groundout by Liam Holloway to cut into the lead. But Cromwell reliever Jared Valentin got the Wildcats' top hitter, Jace Funaro, who represented the tying run, to ground to second base for the final out. Funaro doubled over the head of the center fielder earlier in the game.

Pappariella thought his team didn't play well early, grounding into an inning-ending double play in the first and having a runner cut down stealing by Old Lyme catcher Griffin Powers in the third.

“I told them, 'Look, we're not playing very well and we're (only) down a run,'” Pappariella said. “Our kids kept on believing.”

In the bottom of the fifth, Cromwell brought Valentin out of the bullpen with runners on first and second and nobody out and Valentin retired the side without allowing a run.

To lead off the sixth, Sean Melaven, who is headed to UConn as a walk-on, drew a base on balls. He advanced to third on a pair of wild pitches and scored when Lombardo bounced a single up on the middle on a 3-2 pitch, tying the game.

And Cromwell wasn't through. Dan McCaleb bunted for a single, perfectly placed between home plate and the pitcher's mound, and Budzik followed with a single to right to give the Panthers the lead. Old Lyme threw the next run out at the plate on a grounder by Alex Hinkle to Ron Losacano at short.

Polizonis bunted in the third run of the inning, a successful strategy for Cromwell, which laid down five successful bunts, three for hits, one on a squeeze play and one for a sacrifice.

“We try to be multi-faceted,” Pappariella said. “We try to beat you in a couple different ways. … We'll take it.”

Valentin, whom Pappariella said he nominated for an All-Shoreline nod, but to no avail for a relief pitcher, earned the win. Cromwell had six hits, just two through the first five innings off Thornton.

Thornton took the loss, allowing five hits, striking out four, walking four and hitting a batter in six innings. Thornton is the Wildcats No. 3 starter, said St. Germain, who stuck with his regular rotation throughout the tournament, keeping Old Lyme set up for the upcoming Class S state tournament.

Old Lyme had five hits, two by Eli St. Germain. Powers was twice hit by pitches.

“Both teams had chances,” Randy St. Germain said. “We knew they were going to play small ball all game. They laid down a couple beautiful bunts. … (Thornton was) just a little tired, but he pitched a heck of a game. He got out of a lot of jams.

“… Getting here's all right for me. We certainly want to win it, but we had to go through the H-K, Cromwell gauntlet.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com