East Lyme captures District 6 Babe Ruth (13) championship
East Lyme — Despite winning back-to-back District 10 Little League baseball championships, East Lyme manager Greg Toback knew there would be some major changes prior to the 2015 all-star season.
First there was the move to Babe Ruth and a larger field, a major adjustment for any 13-year-old. And then there was the merger with Salem, which sent four players to a new program and needed time to get acclimated with new teammates and a new league.
"When we came together on the field last fall, it was definitely a big change," Toback said. "The game all of a sudden wasn't as quick as on the small diamond, but the kids worked hard in the fall, then came back in the spring and worked to speed up the game to make us an effective program."
East Lyme overcame every obstacle, including a loss to Waterford in the first game of the double-elimination tournament, to complete a two-game sweep of previously unbeaten Ledyard with an 8-5 victory Thursday night and win the District 6 Babe Ruth championship at Veterans Field.
East Lyme will begin its quest for a state title on Saturday, July 11, when the Connecticut Babe Ruth tournament begins in Danbury.
East Lyme, which beat Ledyard 4-3 in the first game of the championship round on Wednesday, took charge right away Thursday by scoring three runs in the first, the key hit a two-run single by Joey Grubb.
East Lyme extended its lead to 5-0 in the third on Chris Malcom's infield out and an RBI single by Galen Donovan, but Ledyard battled back and closed to within 7-5 before East Lyme scored an important run in the bottom of sixth when Nathan Diaz singled, stole second, was bunted to third by Gus Dodge and scored on a single up the middle by Spencer Winakor.
That particular sequence really pleased Toback.
"We've matured a lot in terms of our goals at the plate," Toback said. "The team understands what we're trying to do and that resulted in run-production for us at a key time."
Donovan, who pitched three hitless innings to start the game before Toback went to his bullpen (he was the winning pitcher two nights earlier), was reinserted after Ledyard rallied in the sixth and stranded two runners with two outs.
Donovan, one of the four players to join the team from Salem, then worked around two errors in the seventh to end the game and send East Lyme to its third straight state tournament.
"The story of this game was definitely Galen Donovan," Toback said. "He was our starting pitcher and has been a core pitcher and core leader for this team. He went three three innings. They got into our bullpen a bit and things got a little squirrely, so we ended up going back to Galen."
Donovan, Malcom and Grubb had two hits apiece for East Lyme with Grubb driving in three runs. Riley Gagnon had a two-run double for Ledyard while Andreas Pardo added an RBI single.
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