East Lyme — East Lyme's offense had erupted for 30 runs in two games headed into the deciding game Friday night of the District 10 11-12-year-old Little League softball tournament and was looking to add to that total.

Waterford manager Brian Majeski tried to emphasize to his team that the second game of Friday's championship doubleheader — East Lyme won the first game 10-3 — was its own entity. Its own starting lineups. Its own national anthem.

"Whether it's a doubleheader or the next day, it's irrelevant," Majeski said. "We told the girls in between games that each game is its own unique experience."

Alexa Collins pitched a five-hitter in the second game, a pitcher's duel, lifting Waterford past East Lyme 3-2 and giving the district title back to Waterford after a one-year hiatus. Waterford reached the East Regional tournament in 2017 before yielding the title to Groton/Mystic a year ago.

Waterford scored two runs in the second inning, the second on an RBI double down the right-field line by No. 9 hitter Isabella Correa, to take the lead and added one in the third when Emilia Podeszwa hustled around to score from second on a groundout.

Waterford then extracted itself from a second and third, no-out situation in the fourth.

Abby Robinson led off the inning with an infield single for East Lyme and Emma Bayor added an infield hit which glanced off the shortstop, allowing Robinson to take third. Bayor stole second to put a pair of runners in scoring position.

The next batter, however, Ava Korineck, grounded out to first and first baseman Grace Muti tagged the bag for the out, then threw to Podeszwa, the catcher, in time to catch Robinson sliding in and completing the double play.

After a hit batter, Collins induced a ground ball to end the inning.

She struck out the side in the fifth and pitched out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth.

Collins walked in a run with two outs in the sixth but got the final hitter on a fly to Paige Jessuck in right to put the finishing touches on a doubleheader that began nearly four hours before.

Waterford advanced to the Section 3 tournament beginning July 7 at Pawcatuck.

"The key phrase is calmly," Majeski said of the way Collins, a soon-to-be eighth-grader at Clark Lane Middle School, silenced the East Lyme hit parade. "Not calmly as in passive. Calmly as in confidently. She kept throwing strikes and when you throw strikes, you have a good chance of success."

"We kind of talked today (in between games) and said, 'now's our chance to actually get ahead,'" said Collins, who shuttled between shortstop and second base in the first game of the day. "... It was really stressful (in the final inning). I just calmed down. I knew we were the home team so if they scored a run, we would still get another chance."

Bayor pitched a six-hitter for East Lyme and had a sacrifice fly in the first inning that gave her team a 1-0 lead.

East Lyme scored 20 runs in an elimination game Thursday over Groton/Mystic to get to the championship round against the unbeaten team in the bracket, Waterford.

East Lyme would have had to win twice in one night to win the title and looked like it was headed in that direction after an onslaught in Friday's first game.

Korineck and Bayor had four hits each in Thursday night's game and Robinson earned the victory in the mercy rule-shortened game, leaving with an 11-0 lead.

That snowballed into Friday's first game. East Lyme scored two runs in the first inning on two hits, two walks and an error and tacked on five in the second on a two-run single by Bayor, a two-run triple down the right field line by Korineck and an RBI single by Lindsay Todd.

East Lyme added two in the fifth on a two-run single by Ava Roth and one in the sixth on a bases-loaded walk to Allie Cabral.

Roth, Bayor and Cabral had two hits each for East Lyme and Robinson pitched a complete-game, five-hitter for the victory.

v.fulkerson@theday.com