Montpelier, Vt. — Mystic's long bus ride home probably seemed even longer on Monday night after stumbling for the first time in New England Collegiate Baseball League postseason play.

Vermont, on the other hand, is thrilled be boarding a bus back to Groton.

The Schooners suffered a 5-4 loss to the Mountaineers in game two of the best-of-three NECBL championship series at Recreation Field. It sets up a deciding game on Tuesday at 6:05 p.m. at Fitch High School.

"Anything in life that's worth it is something you have to really earn," Mystic manager Phil Orbe said by phone on Monday. "If it was easy, we wouldn't appreciate it as much going three games to do it."

"(Vermont) wanted to take a four-hour bus ride. They played hard and were into the game. Maybe a lesser organization would have packed it in."

The Schooners almost pulled out a second straight comeback, scoring three in the ninth inning to cut the gap to one. But reliever Billy Whaley retired Nick Mascelli on a fly ball with a runner on first for the third out.

Mystic had rallied from a 6-0 deficit to capture game one 14-6 on Sunday to improve to 5-0 in the postseason and move into position to win its first NECBL crown.

After averaging 11 runs in the first five playoff games, the Schooners failed to produce a big inning against Vermont starter Sean Leland, a right-hander out of Louisville. He cooled down Mystic's hot bats, pitching eight strong innings. He allowed just one run and six hits, retiring 13 straight at one point. He struck out six and didn't issue a walk.

"Their guy pitched very well," Orbe said. "The young man from Louisville kept us off-balance."

Mystic led only briefly after scoring a run in the top of the first inning on Ben Ruta's one-out single and Richard Slenker's RBI triple.

Mystic starter Tim Holmes (Fisher College) couldn't hold the lead. He lasted just three-plus innings, allowing six hits and four runs and walking three.

Vermont took the lead for good in the bottom of the first, scoring two runs on Garrett Copeland's single. The Mountaineers added a run in the first and two in the fourth to race out to a 5-1 lead.

Tre Gonzalez, a Montville graduate playing at Eastern Connecticut State University, replaced Holmes in the fourth with a runner on first. He walked in a run before settling down, going 1.1 innings. Frank Trimarco danced in and out of trouble but pitched a scoreless 2.2 innings.

"We didn't throw enough strikes again," Orbe said. "I felt we handed them a bunch of runs, particularly early in the game."

Trailing 5-1, Dan Hoy led off the ninth with his third postseason home run. Lou Iannotti drew a two-out walk and John Brucker belted an RBI double. Pinch-hitter Chase Livingston of Niantic kept the rally alive, singling to narrow the deficit to 5-4.

But the rally ended there.

Hoy and Brucker each finished with two hits. Joe Dudek chipped in three hits and an RBI to power Vermont.

Joe Rivera (UConn) will start Tuesday's deciding game for the Schooners. He pitched 3.1 innings of scoreless relief and earned the win in his only other postseason appearance in a 14-5 victory over New Bedford in an NECBL opening round series on Aug. 3.

Orbe has an assortment of quality arms to turn to in the bullpen.

"We have a couple key pieces that are fully rested," Orbe said. "We're in a good situation. If you told me going into the season we'd have a chance to win the Fay Vincent Cup at home with our guys totally rested, I'd take that opportunity."