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Sports

North Stamford Advances to Little League Final With 8-1 Win Over Darien American [Video]

After going 6-0 in pool play, Darien American loses in first win-or-go-home game.

The old adage is that good pitching will always beat good hitting, but North Stamford had both weapons on its side Wednesday.

North Stamford allowed just one hit while collecting 11 en route to an 8-1 win over previously unbeaten Darien American in the semifinals of the District One Little League tournament at Stamford Springdale.

Grant Stone singled to start off the second. With one out, manager Dave Grafstein gave his son Michael the bunt sign.

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Michael missed it, and hit a home run just underneath the scoreboard beyond the left-field wall to give North Stamford a 2-0 lead.

That was all it needed as Stone threw 87 pitches in his five innings. He struck out six out and walked only one.

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After loading the bases in the fourth, North Stamford broke open the game, scoring four runs on two-run doubles by Telly Colarossi and Alex Mella.

Darien American still had three at-bats, but could only muster one unearned run in the fourth when Luke Leasures groundball was bobbled and overthrown at first. That allowed Nick Walter to score from third.

Stone led off the top of the fifth with a home run, restoring the five-run margin, then left in the bottom of the inning after reaching his pitch count. 

Grant Purpura led off the sixth inning with a deep home run over the right-field wall.

Purpura retired Darien American in order in the bottom of the sixth, sending North Stamford into Sunday's championship game against National Lione, which defeated Wilton 7-3 in Wednesday's other semifinal.

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