Montville — Senior Ryan Ziegler’s potent bat handed St. Bernard a comfortable lead in Wednesday’s Class S second round baseball game.

Ziegler had a two-run single in each of his first two at-bats and finished 3-for-3 with a walk and five RBI overall.

The big benefactor?

Ziegler, who was the starting pitcher for the second-seeded Saints.

Given a 9-2 advantage through three innings, Ziegler settled in and pitched a solid 4.2 innings before relievers Luca Muscarella and Bryce Morrissette took over and finished off No. 15 East Granby, 10-3. The trio combined for a two-hitter.

“I felt good,” Ziegler said. “I thought it was a good team win. The bats really woke up. Probably the biggest offensive game we’ve had all year. We faced competition today. And we came ready to play.”

St. Bernard (20-4) will host No. 10 Lyman Memorial in Saturday’s quarterfinals at a time to be determined. Lyman beat Plainfield 7-2 in nine innings. The two ECC Division IV rivals split two games during the regular season before the Saints beat the Bulldogs 7-3 in the ECC quarterfinals on May 24.

The Saints have been practicing for what hopefully will be bigger celebrations down the road.

“It’s definitely been a little awhile,” said coach Grant Livingston when asked the last time St. Bernard reached the quarterfinals. “The goal, obviously, since I started in 2021 was to hang a banner, win a state championship. That’s what we talk about every single day. That’s what we practice.

“At practice, we do 21 outs and on the last out we’re practicing like we’re in the state championship and they throw their gloves up like they’ve won. I got it from Jimmy Valvano. He used to do it for basketball. He’d bring in ladders and they’d practice cutting down the nets. You practice what you want to achieve.”

The Saints took charge with a five-run first inning, sending 10 batters to the plate and taking advantage of an error, a hit-by-pitch and two walks. Ziegler delivered the big hit, driving a two-run single to left field to push the lead to 4-0. Muscarella’s RBI accounted for the fifth run.

After East Granby cut the gap to three in the second inning by scoring on an error and Jackson Moore’s RBI single, St. Bernard answered in the bottom of the frame.

Joe Basso’s RBI double scored Morrissette and Ziegler’s two-out single knocked in two more runs for an 8-2 edge.

Morrissette added an RBI single in the next inning and Ziegler’s line drive just cleared the shortstop’s glove to drive in his team’s 10th run in the sixth.

On the mound, Ziegler gradually found his groove, retiring the last eight batters that he faced. He finished with six strikeouts.

Ziegler’s productive day at the plate turned some heads.

“Are you kidding me with that day out of a pitcher?” Livingston said. “What was he, 3-for-3? Two-out, two strike RBIs. He did everything today. Ryan has really stepped it up. Each year that he’s been here, he’s progressed. This full year has been a showcase of all the work he’s put in the last three years.”

Ziegler was just glad to help out his team.

“I haven’t had that happen in years,” Ziegler said of his offensive day. “It was a nice feeling.”

St. Bernard finished with 11 hits overall, with Morrissette, Muscarella and Colin O’Leary chipping in two apiece.

The Saints are in a good position heading into the quarterfinal with all of their pitchers available for action.

They’ve outscored two state tournament opponents 25-4.

To prepare for the postseason, St. Bernard recently scrimmaged Xavier, which was seeded seventh in Class LL.

“I feel like that got them ready big-time,” Livingston said. “They showed up today ready to hit ... The state tournament is a little funky, and the teams that make runs are the teams that get hot. So, hopefully, today was the start of us getting hot.”

g.keefe@theday.com