Waterford — Becky Hall, having just coached Waterford Little League’s 9-10-year-old softball team in the state championship game, was trying to get an entourage from Orange to Newington last Monday night in time to see her husband Tim Burrows coach Waterford’s 11-12-year-old baseball team, also playing for the state title.

The couple’s daughter, Maddie, 11, plays on her mom’s softball team.

The couple’s son, Jared, 12, plays on his dad’s baseball team.

That meant all four family members were on the move that day, simultaneously wearing the town’s blue and white, competing for championships.

“Anna Bakken sends me updates (on the baseball games), so I get in the car and I have 22 messages,” Hall said. “So we get in the car and we’re driving up and the car reads me the texts. It’s like listening to an old-fashioned sports show.

“(In the fourth inning), one kid walked, there was a base hit, the bases were loaded with two outs and we didn’t know who was up next. The next text comes through and we hit play and it says ‘grand slam.’ We were all screaming in the car. We got there at the end of the fifth. I left everything in the car except my keys and we sprinted to the field.”

Waterford’s baseball team defeated Southington South 9-6, getting that go-ahead grand slam by pinch hitter Michael Marelli, meaning Burrows’ team will open play in the New England Regional at 8 p.m. Monday night in Bristol against Cranston Western Little League of Rhode Island.

Should Waterford get through the New England tournament, a berth in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., awaits.

The 9-10-year-old softball team got a no-hitter from Milena Walker earlier in the day, but lost a close game for the title, 3-1 to Westport, which won the best-of-three series from Waterford two games to one.

Hall, a Southington High School graduate, and Burrows, who was a member of the Waterford High state championship baseball team in 1988, met at the University of New Haven where Hall was a softball player and Burrows a member of the baseball team. Hall is also the head softball coach at Old Lyme High School.

The two coaches/parents have enjoyed their summer.

“Every day,” said Hall, asked if the two discuss strategy among themselves. “Those are our romantic dinners. We sit there with our scorebooks open and talk about, ‘Why didn’t you do this?’ or maybe looking into lineup changes.”

“We go up skiing together (in the winter),” Burrows said. “Right now, I’d rather keep doing this. We can go on vacation later.”

Burrows, who is the sales manager at Full Power Radio, a Ledyard-based company which owns radio stations throughout the region, is at work during the day.

Hall is a reading and ELL (English Language Learners) specialist at the Dual Language and Arts Magnet Middle School in Waterford. She has the summer off and is charged with keeping things “light” during the day, taking the children swimming or playing Xbox against Jared — LEGO Jurassic World is this summer’s game of choice.

Meanwhile, Jared points out that he and Maddie both play the same positions: pitcher and shortstop.

“It’s been really exciting at times,” Jared said.

“I want him to win it all,” Maddie said, noting that she and her brother get along most of the time. “Whenever the (baseball) games gets close and then they win, I get so relieved. … I just thought (the softball team was) going to win because we played our hardest. It was farther than we got last year, but I was just hoping.”

There were three families with a player on each of the teams coached by Hall and Burrows, something that added to the support system for the Waterford players.

With the 9-10-year-old state Division 3 softball tournament being held in Waterford and the Section 2 championship game held in New London, Burrows was also able to schedule practices around the girls’ games, making for a spirited rooting section.

“They’re so eager to learn; they love softball,” Hall said of her team. “I say try hitting from the left side, they’re like, ‘Oh, my god!’ So excited about stuff. Why not learn the game all at once?”

“There’s not a bad kid in the bunch,” said Burrows of his players, who were wearing matching jerseys at a recent practice prior to leaving for Bristol on Saturday. “They’re great kids. They’ve had a lot of games. They know each other. They trust each other.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday