By Mike Madera
Elm City Sports Writer

As the American Legion state tournament began, there was one glaring difference for all the teams involved. Instead of playing the normal seven innings, teams would have to adjust to playing nine innings.

Two innings made all the difference in the world for the North Haven Post 76 baseball team.

Trailing No. 36 South Windsor (Zone VIII) by one run after seven innings of play, North Haven got the equalizer in the eighth and won the game 4-3 on Jake DeRosa’s single in the 12th inning of an American Legion state tournament play-in game Saturday at DeMayo Field in North Haven.

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The NH Register's All-State baseball team came out on Sunday.

Check out the lineup and the story on MVP performer Bryan Daniello of McMahon.

The All-Area team will be out on Friday with the remainder of the spring sports in a special section.

The NH Register's All-Area Spring Sports special section was delayed one week and will now be published on July 20. Thank you for your patience in this matter.

There has been quite a battle raging between the Orange, Branford, Milford and East Haven American Legion baseball teams for the top spot in Zone II.

Nick Fusco led Orange to a state tournament-qualifying 2-0 victory over Stratford on Wednesday night to improve Post 127's record to 14-3. Branford is right behind at 14-4 while Milford and East Haven both were at 13-5 entering Thursday's games.

Milford's Cody Hadden fired a complete-game one-hitter with 10 strikeouts to lead Post 196 past Hamden on Tuesday night.

In another recent game, Orange ace Mike Concato shut down North Haven Post 76 and East Haven closed in on a tournament berth with a 7-2 win over West Haven.

For more American Legion Zone II coverage, visit ctbulletin.com/sports and ctpostchronicle.com/sports and follow us at twitter.com/ElmCitySports

Our All-State softball team was published on Sunday.

Megan Ruonavaara of Rocky Hill is our MVP.