East Lyme — Every day the Waterford 14-year-old Babe Ruth team goes to practice, coach Dan McBride tells the parents to pick their kids up in two hours. It's always more like two and a half.

"Just the work they put in," McBride said, asked of the happenings the last two days which allowed his team to capture the District 6 championship for their age division. "They've each taken 100, 150 swings a day. A lot of swings. ... It was the best two days I've seen these kids play."

Waterford, which came out of the losers' bracket, meaning the team had to beat East Lyme twice to win the title, completed the task Friday night with a 6-3 victory, shutting out East Lyme for the first five innings. Waterford won Thursday's game 11-3 to set up the winner-take-all matchup between the rivals.

It created a Waterford sweep of the Babe Ruth 15, 14 and 13 titles for the second time in four years. There has also been an occasion during that span (2014) that Waterford had its 15-year-old and 13-year-old Babe Ruth teams make trips to the World Series in the same season.

This particular group of Waterford kids, though, was looking for its first district title, with the core of East Lyme's team having won the championship at their last three age levels.

"I think they really took a step in their baseball careers," McBride said. "This put them over the hump to being winners. A lot of times in Waterford, winning a district title isn't a big deal. For this group, this is a big deal. We've had a tough time with these guys (East Lyme)."

Friday's game was scoreless for the first three and a half innings until Waterford struck for a run in the bottom of the fourth. Waterford then scored three times in the fifth, getting an RBI single from Sonny Pezzello and a two-run double to center field by Petey Kiefer.

Waterford pitcher Steve Cantres, meanwhile, cruised through five scoreless innings, allowing only three hits during that time. Starting the fifth inning, he had only thrown 36 pitches. Cantres also got help from the defense, with center fielder Payton Sutman tracking down two drives from East Lyme's Chris Malcom and Kiefer going to one knee for a stop at short only to get up and nail the runner at first.

East Lyme made things interesting with three runs in the sixth, pulling to within 4-3. Sophie Dubreuil led off with a single to right-center, pinch hitter Dylan McDonald walked and Noah Perry scratched out an infield single to load the bases.

Tommy Bonelli's single to the right-center scored two runs and Chris Abbey followed with a towering sacrifice fly to left.

If McBride was perhaps a little bit nervous at that point — "I was cool as a cucumber," the coach said with a laugh — Waterford tacked on a couple of runs to keep East Lyme at a safe distance. Zane Mikula was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and Sutman singled. There was an East Lyme error, followed by an RBI single by Liam Kane.

Mikula pitched a one-two-three top of the seventh to earn the save, sending Waterford to the state tournament in Newtown beginning July 9.

"It's a sign of competing against a good team," East Lyme coach Greg Toback said of coming up short the last two days. "They have great baseball athletes. This group has won three years straight and every year we've had to go through Waterford. Now they had to go through us. They're a well-disciplined team. Well-coached. You can't make mistakes against them.

"When we scored three in the sixth, I thought we had our opportunity, but they came out and put two more up. ... I'm proud of this team. They love playing the game together and we love the time we get to spend with them on the field."

East Lyme got a complete game from pitcher Galen Donovan, who scattered eight hits. Bonelli, the right fielder, threw out a Waterford runner at the plate in the first inning and second baseman Zac Aquino started a 4-3 double play in the third.

Waterford had two hits each from Kiefer and Kane.

v.fulkerson@theday.com