Clinging to a 4-2 lead over the Green Machine in the bottom of the fifth, the Blue Devils exploded for five runs in a 9-2 victory to capture the Newtown Babe Ruth U10/11 fall baseball championship under the lights at Treadwell last week.

Brennan Merrick (2-for-2, double) and Jack Zahansky sparked the rally and Reid Schmidt (2-for-3, double, triple) finished it off with a bases-clearing triple. Closer Dan Gustafson iced the win, putting the Machine’s final batters down in order, aided by a sparkling put-out by shortstop Ryan Daignault.

The Green Machine had moved handily through the playoffs on the strong arms of flame throwers Patrick Sullivan, Mike Davis, and David Gerics. In the championship, Sullivan started on the hill for the Machine opposite righthander Jon Hull of the Blue Devils. and they traded zeros for two innings. Then Merrick, Moyer, and Daignault (2-for-3) all singled to push two across for the Blue Devils in the third, and Schmidt doubled and scored in the fourth on a Brendan Peterson (2-for-3) base rap.

Peterson made it home on a wild pitch and it was 4-0 for the home team.

The Machine made their move in the fifth, pushing across two runs on a walk to Davis and singles by Sullivan, Brandon Cooper. But the bottom of the fifth was kind to the Blue Devils as they poured it on and ensured that the fall championship would be theirs.

The hot-as-fire Blue Devils gained the championship round in the eight-team double elimination tournament via three straight playoff wins at the hitter-friendly Treadwell diamond.

First to fall were the Red Alert, who succumbed to a 10-run middle inning barrage. Red Alert starter Dean Demers kept the Devil’s bats cool over the first two frames, allowing only a single run on a Gustafson RBI in an uncanny display of strike-throwing (31 pitches, 22 strikes). But the floodgates opened in the third and fourth as sluggers Stephen Walsh (2-for-2, 2 runs), Alex Roche (double, 2 runs), Vikram Makayee (1-for-2, double), and Schmidt (2-for-2) led the way.

Nick Swenson had an RBI single and Daignault and Ryan Moyer also singled and scored. Blue Devil moundsmen Hull and Schmidt were merciless, yielding only a hit apiece to Red Alert batters Austin Eckstrom and Eric Terhaar while whiffing nine in the four-inning contest

Next up were manager Warren Spencer’s menacing Padres who, despite the heroics of Riley Wurtz (3-for-3, double), Joe Davis (2-for-3), and Bubba LeBlanc (2-for-2) left the field a 10-4 victim of the charged-up Blue Devils. They wasted no time as roadrunners Roche, Hull, and Schmidt (2 hits each) crossed the plate in the first inning.

Lefty powerhitter Peterson (2-for-3) had the big hit as he lined a single to right for two RBI. Greg Horne’s rope single to left plated another in the second, and the blueshirts added four more in a third inning rally capped by Swenson’s RBI single.

Meanwhile Hull and Schmidt commanded the strike zone, yielding but a single run in four innings on four hits before Gustafson came on to dazzle the Padres with his El Duque leg kick and richly-emblazoned Atlanta Braves warm-up jacket. All three hurlers enjoyed flawless infield play from the partnership of Daignault, Walsh, Swenson, and Merrick.

For the Blue Devils, a trip to the trophy round was in sight. But first loomed a daunting showdown with manager Gary Stoller’s maroon-clad Thunder, whose top-of-the-order sluggers and 60 mph pitching had made them the team to beat at the end of the season.

And things opened poorly for the blueshirts on this frosty autumn evening. Fans had barely enough time to wrap in their blankets before peals of high-tech-composite thunder erupted to send four Stoller runs across the plate. Kyle Wilcox had the big blast, an inside-the-park round- tripper to right.

Down 4-0 with no outs in the first, the Blue Devils recovered their season-long “bend but don’t break” mentality and exited the inning without further damage. Right away they answered with a run off Wilcox on a booming two-strike RBI sac fly to right by Peterson, scoring Hull.

Then, in the third, the Devils jumped ahead with four runs on walks by Daignault and Roche and singles by Zahansky – a laser shot to right center – Hull and Schmidt.

On the mound, Schmidt was in command, striking out five. Gustafson, nursing a 5-4 lead, brought home the bacon by closing out the game with help from a sixth inning web gem from third baseman Moyer, who gloved Wilcox’s high hopper and fired to first in one motion, just in time to retire the speedy lead-off man.

Two batters later Gustafson gloved Jacob Moore’s comebacker and the Blue Devils were 5-4 victors and off to the finals.

The Blue Devils were managed by Josh Hull and coached by Rich Gustafson and Ron Schmidt.