East Lyme — The Waterford players excitedly ran around the field in celebration, cheers and smiles abound.

The kids sprinted toward home plate, tossing their gloves aside and waited for their awards. Then, they posed in a group as their parents gathered to take their pictures.

Waterford 5, East Lyme 3.

“They’re feeling great,” Waterford manager Tim Burrows said. “They worked really hard, they deserve it.”

After taking the second game of the District 10 Little League (11-12) baseball championship Friday, Waterford advanced to the state Division 3 tournament at West Hartford, which will begin next Wednesday.

But unlike Thursday’s 15-4 victory, Friday wasn’t a stroll in the park for Waterford. East Lyme came to play, and the stellar pitching of Dan Allard helped to shut down Waterford’s potent offense and provided the biggest test yet.

“I told them we didn't play our best game, and we still grinded out the win,” Burrows said. “… that Allard kid pitched a fantastic game against us. He shut us down basically, and we had to scrap to get our runs.”

Waterford struck early in the top of the first inning. Jared Burrows reached first and was soon singled in by Luke Sokolski to give his team a 1-0 lead. Two batters later, Ryan Salvador roped a single to knock in Sokolski to extend the lead to two.

But Waterford wasn't the only team to scrap it out. After falling behind, East Lyme gave Waterford the test it had yet to receive.

“I was very proud of the effort,” East Lyme manager Jamie Chambers said. “And they didn’t just throw in the towel. They definitely fought to the end.”

Owen Robbins hit a single to the left-center field fence to open the bottom of the second inning. Robbins moved all the way to third after a wild pitch and Allard hit a single past the Waterford third baseman that brought Robbins home.

East Lyme tacked on two more runs in the inning to make it 3-2. After being the first team to score on Waterford on Thursday, East Lyme became the first team in the tournament to take a lead against it.

“We did a lot better (today),” Chambers said.

East Lyme was clicking. But Waterford, as it had showed time and time again, proved to be too much for its opposition.

“We cut 10 runs off the deficit from yesterday and we scored about the same number of runs … but my thought was after the game, 'it just wasn’t enough,'” Chambers said.

In the top of the third with Sokolski on third base and Salvador on second, Waterford's Trey Brennan singled Sokolski home to knot the game back at three.

With Michael Morelli at the plate, a misfired throw to try and catch Brennan stealing second allowed Salvador to score. Waterford took control again.

“We did enough to win,” Burrows said. “And that’s all we can do.”

East Lyme continued to fight, the grit and mojo it had shown so often still visible.

In the bottom of the third with Alex Fraser on first, Will Kane got underneath a ball and sent it to deep left-center, only to have the would be go-ahead home run robbed by the outstretched arms of Brennan, catching just before it fell past the outfield fence.

“One of the key plays of the game. … That was a clutch play,” Chambers said.

It proved to be a momentum-swinger. Sokolski hit an RBI double the next inning to push the score to 5-3 and, two scoreless innings later, the celebration began.

“They did it; we didn't do anything,” Burrows said. “We’re happy for them … we’ve already had our day in the sun, this is their time. It’s just fun watching them play and it’s fun watching them succeed.”