East Lyme — Coaches in baseball and softball have preached “one before two” for time immemorial, the idea that turning a double play is nice and all, but be diligent enough to at least get the first out before getting greedy.

Meredith Swanson had her own version of “one before two” Friday night.

Swanson, the coach of East Lyme-Salem, knew her team would eventually have to defeat unbeaten Stonington twice in the championship round of the District 10 Little League softball finals (ages 10-12). But to reach Saturday, her kids would have to conquer Friday.

“Very hard,” Swanson said of, ironically, a night her team made look easy. “Just try to keep them focused, knowing that we thought we should have been the team that was unbeaten and had to lose twice. It was ‘next pitch, next hit.’”

East Lyme-Salem did indeed force Saturday’s winner-take-all final with a 7-2 win at Vets Field. The two teams play in the same locale in the finals at 7.

Winning pitcher Peyton Swanson allowed one earned run and three hits in six innings with six strikeouts, including three straight in the fourth inning.

“She works very hard at this,” Meredith Swanson said. “Year round, five to six days a week. I will say this is the hardest she’s thrown all year. She was into it tonight.”

East Lyme-Salem took a 2-0 lead in the first, thanks to a bunt single from Jillian Hintze and an ensuing triple from Mikaela Richter, who rifled a ground ball through the right side of the infield that eventually split the outfielders. Richter scored on Kennah Perkins’ grounder to short.

“The two runs early definitely showed the girls they had the ability to rise to the occasion,” Swanson said. “It helped us keep up the energy.”

Stonington tied the game in the next inning after Whitney Friend tripled and scored when Sloane Deary reached on an error. Deary stole two bases and scored on Camila Hedde’s ground ball.

East Lyme-Salem took the lead for good in the second when Swanson singled and stole second and later scored as Bryn Glidwell reached on an error. Glidwell scored when Molly Gault bunted her home.

Perkins’ two-run double highlighted a three-run third, scoring Hailey Fletcher and Hintze.

“Nothing changes (Saturday),” Swanson said. “Same philosophy. Pump them up, sugar them up and keep it positive.”

m.dimauro@theday.com