Durham - There were two outs in the top of the fourth inning of Tuesday's Connecticut Section II Junior League softball championship and Waterford was still scoreless with Vernon.

While that may not be alarming to most teams, it is when the front of your shirt says Waterford and you've been scoring runs at the rate the 13-14 year-old All-Star team had been.

"You should have seen me in the dugout," Waterford's Mena Buscetto said. "I was getting so nervous. I was like, 'Guys, come on, this isn't really like us. What are we doing?'"

So with two outs in the fourth, Waterford put seven straight runners on, scoring five times en route to a 13-0 win.

They begin play in the best-of-three state championship series against Bridgeport on Saturday in Seymour at 5:30 p.m.

"These girls play the game well and they've been taught well," said Waterford manager Rob Austin, who has guided them to two straight Section II championships. "You have to score to beat us."

Last year's team featured just three 14-year-olds, but they were Kelli Connors, Alyssa Hancock and Christine Hadfield, names synonymous with the town's recent softball success.

"That's like the Big Three for the Celtics," Austin said. "This year, the difference is they're a year older. So many of the role players have contributed, whereas last year, maybe they were overmatched physically. Those three played so many key positions that we had to rebuild our structure. It took us a while to figure out where everyone is. Right now we're pretty locked in. We're tough to beat."

Buscetto and Megan Spellman combined to hold Vernon to just two hits, singles in the first and seventh. Buscetto struck out seven and walked one in three innings, while Spellman struck out 11 in four. The pair has allowed just two unearned runs in eight tournament games.

"The kid with the ball at the end of the game (Spellman) has had the ball for me 17 times in two years to finish the game and every time she's finished it with a win." Austin said.

Buscetto grew up playing in New London and is the only New London player on the Waterford team after Waterford merged with the city for All-Stars this season.

"I've played travel with all these girls forever," she said. "It feels like we're a family playing together, finally. It feels really good. I dreamed about being a part of this since I was nine. We always came in second to them. They are always so good. It's nice to be a part of it."

Elaina Sullivan hit an RBI double to start the scoring in the fifth, and Kate Haff added a two-run single. Waterford added four more in the fifth, two on a two-run single by Courtney Borysewicz, and another on a single by Haff. Spellman added a two-run double in the seventh.

"We all contribute," Buscetto said. "There comes a point where we know we have to step it up. If someone's not hitting another person will. Or with me and Megan, if one of us isn't at our best, the other will pick us up."

So another Waterford softball team plays on and extends its summer, something that has become just another part of growing up in town.

"They have to give up their summer," Austin said. "They work hard at it. They expect to play a good game and they go into every game knowing it's going to be a good team to beat us. The mindset is when they go on the field, the other team is going to have to beat us."

o.poole@theday.com