BRISTOL, Conn. -- For seven innings on Wednesday afternoon, Izayia Mestre sizzled.

 

The Taconic High School rising senior and Post 68 ace held the reigning American Legion Northeast Regional champions to four hits and just one unearned run.

 

But in the eighth inning at Muzzy Field, Cromwell, Conn., came alive offensively. Six hits, five runs and two Post 68 relievers later, it was a 6-0 ballgame, and Cromwell ace Cole Ogorzalek made sure that is where it stood.

 

The Connecticut champs stayed in the winners bracket and sent Post 68 to the losers bracket where on Thursday morning it will face South Portland, Maine, in an elimination game to try to stay alive. The Mainers on Wednesday opened the tournament with a 4-3 loss to Rochester, N.H.

 

Things were just as tight in the regional’s third game for most of the afternoon.

 

Post 68 made one mistake: a third-inning error that allowed Cromwell to scratch out a run.

 

Other than that, Mestre and Ogorzalek matched each other pitch for pitch and big out for big out.

 

“Z pitched a great game,” Post 68 coach Pat Bassi said. “Into the eighth inning, he just tired. He had 115 pitches, I think. He was tired at the end. They caught up him.

 

“The other kid pitched a great game. We didn’t hit, plain and simple.”

 

Pittsfield finished with three base hits, but they came in six separate innings. Four times, Post 68 got a man to second base but failed to advance him.

 

The most frustrating moment for Bassi may have been the time his team failed to get a man past first.

 

It was a 1-0 game in the top of the eighth when Simon Nassif led off by dropping an 0-1 pitch into right field for his second base hit of the game.

 

It was only the second time all day Pittsfield put the leadoff man on base, and Bassi, staying true to the formula that has brought the team so much success, called for the bunt.

 

But the ball shot off the bat toward the mound, and Ogorzalek started a 1-4-3 double play to eliminate the threat.

 

“I was feeling pretty confident,” Bassi said. “He gets the ball down, and we have the top of our order coming up with one out and a runner on second. … We very easily could have tied it up or gone ahead, and it’s a different ballgame.”

 

In addition to Nassif, who went 2-for-3, Chad Shade went 2-for-4 with a double, Mestre doubled down the line in right, and Matt Koperniak had a one-out single in the bottom of the ninth.

 

Mestre stranded seven runners through the first seven innings, and Post 68 used a couple of big defensive plays to help keep it a one-run game as long as it was.

 

Cromwell started the bottom of the first with a pair of hits to immediately threaten. But after a strikeout and a walk to load the bases, Mestre fielded a comebacker to the mound and fired to catcher Matt Schneider, who relayed to first to catch the batter and end the inning.

 

In the bottom of the seventh, Cromwell had men on first and second with two out when Ogorzalek singled to left field. Jack Cooney got to the ball and fired a strike to Schneider, who tagged out the runner attempting to score from second.

 

In the eighth, Cromwell’s Austin White led off with a single, but Mestre got the next two men to fly out and groundout. It appeared he might once again keep it a one-run game.

 

But Connecticut’s Roland Thivierge hit an RBI double, and the next six men reached base as Cromwell batted around, scored five and gave Ogorzalek more than enough cushion.