Stamford — When the week began, Waterford was put in a must-win situation just to get out of pool play in the Connecticut Babe Ruth 13-year-old baseball tournament.

The District 10 champions were up to the task, knocking off previously unbeaten Stamford 6-3 to advance to the semifinals ... and there was no looking back.

Waterford routed Darien 9-0 in Thursday's semifinals, then used a five-run outburst in the third inning to take control against Stamford again, rolling to an 11-1 victory over the hosts in the state championship game at Cubeta Stadium on Friday night.

Waterford advances to the New England tournament in Rochester, N.H., beginning Saturday, July 23.

Waterford ace Jared Burrows went the distance for the win, scattering five hits and striking out eight. His effort came a day after Ryan Bakken shut out Darien in a complete-game effort.

"I went against my own grain by not pitching our best pitcher against Darien," Waterford manager Dave Laffey said. "But I had so much confidence in Ryan to set us up for Jared and that's exactly what happened."

Matt Sanford's RBI triple jump-started Waterford in the third. He scored on a wild pitch moments later to make it 2-0 before Luke Sokolski added a two-run single and Brian O'Connell drove in the final run with a base hit to make it 5-0.

Sokolski finished 3-for-5 with a double.

The majority of this Waterford team won the District 10 Little League title in 2015, but Laffey always believed this group could adjust to playing on a larger field this season.

"I was confident because they have been well-coached at every level," Laffey said. "And then earlier in the year they played up against 14s a couple of times, so they were already tournament-tested. I was confident they would respond well."

State Little League softball (11-12)

• Waterford suffered its first loss of the tournament, falling to North Branford 2-1. Angela Colonis pitched a three-hitter for Waterford, which got only one hit — a single by Bella Williams. Waterford plays either Jewett City or Seymour in the losers' bracket final on Saturday at 2 p.m.

District 10 Little League softball (9-10)

• Groton/Mystic won the opener in the best-of-three finals, beating Waterford 6-3. Katie Tuohy pitched a two-hitter for the win, striking out 10. Sophie Ash had two hits for Groton/Mystic and teammate Charlotte Cabral doubled. Anna Dziecinny pitched for Waterford. Game 2 is at East Lyme today at 5:30 p.m.

State Little League baseball (10-11)

• Waterford won its opener in the Section 3 tournament, beating Cromwell 10-8. Evan Piotrowski, Evan McCue, Anthony Sharples and Sean Salvador had two hits each for Waterford and McCue and Sharples had doubles. Sharples was the winning pitcher and Salvador earned a save.  

Schooners win

• The Mystic Schooners scored three runs in the bottom of the first and went on to beat the Danbury Westerners 5-2 in a New England Collegiate Baseball League game played at Dodd Stadium in Norwich. Richard Slenker (Yale) had a two-run double and C.J. Moore (Grambling) singled home a run in the first. Nick Mascelli (Wagner) scored twice for the Schooners (18-11). Joseph Rivera (UConn) was the winning pitcher, allowing two hits and no runs over four innings with three strikeouts and a walk.