Waterford — For seven innings Tuesday, Notre Dame of West Haven's hitters tried to solve Waterford's UConn-bound right-hander Mike Burrows, whose fastball hit as high as 95 on the radar gun.

Turned out that was the easy part of the afternoon.

Burrows, done after seven innings with game still scoreless, yielded to teammate Bobby Silva, whose arsenal may not feature anything that would be called for speeding on I-95.

And yet it was Silva's array of slow ... slower ... arthritic snail ... that ultimately allowed the Lancers to survive and advance in the CIAC Class L baseball tournament.

Silva's three scoreless innings got punctuated by the offense in the bottom of the 10th, when Cadin Maynard's infield single scored pinch-runner Ben Podeszwa with the game's only run.

Waterford 1, Notre Dame 0.

The fourth-seeded Lancers (18-5) will play at home Wednesday against No. 20 Bristol Eastern in the second round. Bristol Eastern ousted No. 13 Fitch 12-6.

"(Teammate) John (Pellegrino) and I call ourselves 'finesse pitchers,'" Silva said. "It can't be easy to face that after Mike's been gassing you all game."

Silva, a veteran of Babe Ruth state tournaments and World Series games, struck out three in his three innings, working out of a two-on, two-out jam in the eighth.

Burrows struck out nine, allowed four hits, but had to escape jams in the fifth and sixth. The No. 29 Green Knights had the bases loaded and two outs with hitter Michael Robertson ahead on the count 3-0. Burrows responded by striking him out.

"My arm was dragging more than usual today," Burrows said. "The key today was working out of some jams. It's a good mix at the end there with Bobby in there. It must screw you up as a hitter."

Perhaps the day's pitching story, however, was Fairfield-bound Notre Dame lefty Mike Sansone, who retired the last 18 batters he faced. Sansone allowed four hits, no walks and struck out 13 in nine innings.

"How about Bobby Silva? I mean are you kidding me?" Waterford coach Art Peluso said. "And how good is Mike Burrows? How good is he? And the kid Sansone? I told him (in the handshake line) nobody lost this game. He went nine innings, threw (112) pitches and the 112th was as good as the first one. He's really good."

Waterford's rally in the 10th came off reliever James Salemme. Matt Driscoll's two-strike single preceded Silva's successful sacrifice bunt on a 3-2 count that moved Podeszwa to second. Podeszwa reached third on a passed ball and zipped home on Maynard's infield chopper on which third baseman Akshay Reddy had no play.

"I was trying to get a ball I could elevate. It really didn't work out great," Maynard said with a grin.

Maynard sat on the bench during Waterford's run to the state basketball championship in March. But he's already authored at least one happy ending for the baseball team.

"It feels good to be part of it," Maynard said. "This is a great group of guys."

Waterford catcher Joe Scotti also helped Burrows by throwing two runners out stealing.

"I told the kids that the team that's more mentally tough would win this game," Peluso said. "(Driscoll) gets down 0-2 and gets a hit. Bobby gets the bunt down. Ben was alert on the bases. And Cadin Maynard didn't try to do too much and out it in play. That's all huge."

m.dimauro@theday.com