By MATT STRAUB
Sports Editor

BRISTOL — The young men who have represented Berlin baseball so well on and off the field over the last two seasons finally have their state championship, and those who said Berlin couldn’t win the big game have no leg to stand on.

Berlin won the second game of the championship round against Milford to win the double-elimination American Legion state tournament Saturday afternoon at Muzzy Field in Bristol. Berlin will now represent Connecticut in the Northeast Regional in Manchester, N.H. starting on Thursday.

“I’ve been around a lot of these guys for three years so it’s great to see,” Berlin coach Rob Manzo said. “It’s so nice to see kids believe in what we’re doing and stay with it and not get frustrated.”

This group of Berlin players, who lost the Legion state title game a year ago and the Class L high school championship in June, must have been especially frustrated when their first chance to wrap up this year’s Legion crown went by the wayside. Milford won the first game of the day 2-1 on a squeeze play in the last of the ninth, setting up the winner-take-all finale.

This time Berlin capitalized on Milford’s miscues and backed up its dominant pitching, taking a 2-1 decision to wrap up the title.

In the second game, Milford made four errors and failed to execute a double play, helping Berlin score the only two runs it would need. Three of those key mistakes came in the third and gave Berlin its runs. The first two batters of the inning reached on errors, and Jake Matuszak scored on a third one. Zach Parsons delivered an RBI single to make it 2-0 and send Berlin on its way.

“We knew Milford was a great team and was going to come back again, so we were really hoping to get those couple of runs, maybe three, early,” Manzo said. “That made the difference. Two runs seemed like five.”

When Milford cut the lead to 2-1 things went right back to being nerve-racking.

Tournament MVP Anthony Marzi had thrown five shutout innings and escaped trouble in the sixth to preserve the lead. Gabe Guerino doubled to get Milford on the board, but Jason Lewicki lined one to Matuszak in center, and he fired the ball home in time to keep the tying run on third. Joe Balowski then snared a line drive at third for the last out of the inning.

“I thought the biggest play was when they didn’t score on the ball to Jake,” Manzo said. “Then we made that last out. That was a big momentum swing right there... We played clean baseball and made big plays when we had to. We talk a lot about not giving extra outs. Especially with the wood bats, that’s what separates the winners from the losers — not making mistakes.”

After Marzi recovered with a strong seventh, Berlin’s top reliever, Mark Bordonaro, separated Milford from the title. He was dominant in his final two innings, fanning three of the six men he faced. In the ninth he faced the part of the order that got to Berlin ace Matt Carasiti in the opener.

Carasiti was brilliant for eight innings, holding Milford to a run, but gave up a hit, a walk, and hit a batter in the ninth. Bordonaro came on with one out and the bases loaded when Tom Booth squeezed home the winning run.

“It made me focus a thousand times more,” Bordonaro said.

Berlin had to concentrate more after the first game. The loss clearly started putting doubts in the minds of the players. For the third time in 12 months, Berlin had lost a game that would have won a state title. But Berlin didn’t let those thoughts sink too deeply. It had one more shot, and this time it didn’t let a golden opportunity slip away.

“We were a little frustrated,” Manzo said. “We were, I don’t want to say shocked, but I think we were frustrated. We didn’t execute well in the first game. We missed a couple of bunts. We just had to execute better and come out and play harder in the second game.”

Two hours later, Berlin’s emotions had swung to the other end of the pendulum. Now it was trying to keep its poise with the championship finally within reach.

“We didn’t want to jinx it by going into the last inning saying ‘let’s get this done,’ but we were all thinking it,” Bordonaro said. “We didn’t try and get too far ahead of ourselves.”

The last out came this time, a strikeout by Bordonaro that led to a pig pile just to the left of the pitcher’s mound. Balowski, Matuszak, Bordonaro and catcher Chris Morin were named to the All-Tournament team, with Bordonaro also being named the most outstanding pitcher.

Berlin will open the regional tournament Thursday night at approximately 7:30 p.m. against the host team from Manchester. Berlin is guaranteed a game on Friday at Gill Stadium, either around noon or again at night. The tournament runs through Monday, with the finals starting at 1 p.m.

But for now, Berlin will simply celebrate the addition of its first Legion title since 2002 and the removal of the stigma of those two tough losses.

“This is probably the best day of my life,” Carasiti said.

At the end of that wonderful day came one more question. A reporter asked the group of Berlin pitchers that was gathered if they wanted to say anything to those folks that kept saying Berlin couldn’t close the deal. Bordonaro tried to contain a smile, then gestured toward the field before uttering a simple and direct reply.

“We just did.”