Groton — Mystic begins pursuit of its first New England Collegiate Baseball League Championship by hosting the best-of-three series opener on Wednesday night at Fitch High School in Groton.

The first pitch is set for 6:05 p.m.

The Schooners come in a well-rested bunch, earning a two-day break after completing a sweep of Newport on Sunday in the Southern Division Championship series. They scored four runs in the ninth inning to post a 7-3 victory at Cardines Field.

They'll face either the Sanford Mainers or the Valley Blue Sox on Wednesday. Those two teams will play a deciding game three in their Northern Division series Tuesday night.

This will be Mystic's second straight appearance in the NECBL finals, losing last year to Vermont. The Schooners will play game two on the road on Thursday. If necessary, a third game will be at Fitch on Friday.

The Schooners, the league's most potent attack during the regular season, have carried their momentum right into the postseason. They're batting .297 in five playoff games and averaging 5.8 runs per game.

No one has been hotter in the last few weeks than Martin Figueroa (Rhode Island), who's 8-for-21 with three home runs and five RBI in the postseason. After driving in three runs and slugging a home run against Newport on Sunday, Chase Lunceford (Louisiana Tech) has increased his postseason average to .353 with a team-high six RBI. Richard Slenker (Yale) has team-high tying eight hits, batting .421 to go with three RBI and a home run.

The Mystic pitching staff owns a respectable post-season earned run average of 3.68, striking out 45 and walking just 15. Reliever Mason Kukowski (Yale) has two saves and not allowed a run in three innings, giving up two hits while striking out five and walking one. Ryan Thomas, a submarine-style reliever out of Marist College, has two wins.

New London wins passing league

• The New London High School football team edged Bacon Academy 24-22 Monday to win the Coach Beams 7-on-7 Summer Passing League at Cannamela Field.

New London beat Thames River in Monday’s quarterfinals (25-22) and Killingly in the semifinals (17-9).

Jovan Aimetti, Jacob Commander, Melquann Gomez, Monte Johnson, Elijah Lawyea, Renelson Michel, Elijah Parker, Ni-Shan Pemberton, Major Roman, Efrain Santiago and Star Stokes played for New London.

East Lyme, Fitch, Ledyard, Montville, Norwich Free Academy, Stonington, Valley Reigonal/Old Lyme and Waterford were among the 16 teams that participated.

New York-Penn League

• Ryan McKenna had two hits, including a double, with two runs and two RBI as the Aberdeen IronBirds scored four times in the first inning and went on to the beat the Connecticut Tigers 6-3 in a game played before 1,273 at Dodd Stadium. Kevin Moesquit had two hits and scored twice for the IronBirds (21-28). Blaise Salter had an RBI single for the Tigers (27-23) and Josh Lester singled and scored.