Jimmy Marzi added his name to the list of players who have made game-saving plays during the last month. He and his teammates found yet another way to win in extra innings, and Berlin captured the Little League state championship with an improbable 1-0, eight-inning victory over Killingly in Game 2 of the State Championship series at Volunteer Field in Newington on Saturday night. The series sweep puts Berlin into the Little League Eastern Regional New England division tournament starting on Friday night in Bristol.

"This is how we played through all three tournaments," Berlin coach Chris Pick said. "It’s gutsy, they never give up, and they’re just hard-nosed ball players."

That hard-nosed, aggressive style finally broke Berlin through in the bottom of the eighth. Fanol Prevalla walked with one out, and Marzi followed by being hit by a pitch. Berlin executed a double steal, with Prevalla taking third, then alertly rising and turning for home when the throw to third sailed into left field. Prevalla scored, and Berlin had the game’s only run.

"This has been his series," Pick said of Prevalla, whose home run in Game 1 provided the winning runs and who also was the winning pitcher in relief in Game 2. "You have certain players who can almost will themselves to take over a game, and he’s one of them."

Prevalla was the final hero, but he wasn’t the only one. From the fifth inning on, Killingly threatened to take the lead, only to be turned away. Berlin starter Taylor Anderson struck out the first two batters of the top of the fifth inning, but walked Connor Milliken, the number-nine hitter. Connor Rochefort reached on an infield single, and Milliken went to third on an error on the play. Dave Demuth grounded sharply into the hole between first and second, but Marzi dove to his right and came up firing, forcing Rochefort at second and stranding the runners.

"That was huge," Pick said. "I was a little bit nervous, but then Jimmy came up big. They’ve all been doing this. You never know which one of them is going to pick us up."

Anderson was next in line to save the day in the sixth. Killingly’s Sean Brackett started things by working a walk. Randy Waterman’s bunt was perfectly placed down the first-base line, giving Killingly two runners with no one out. Joe Naylor bunted the runners over, but Anderson recorded a key strikeout for the second out. Sean Haythe then walked to load the bases, but Anderson struck out Tyler Neeland, leaping into the arms of his waiting teammates as Berlin ran off the field with the rally killed.

Prevalla came on to pitch starting in the seventh, but struggled early. Rochefort walked with one out, and Demuth reached on an infield single. Prevalla then came back to strike out the next two hitters, and the winning run again was left standed in scoring position. Killingly loaded the bases one last time in the eighth with one out, but Prevalla scooped up a squeeze bunt attempt by Milliken and tossed the ball to Zach Parsons at the plate for the out. A ground ball to shortstop ended the inning, giving Killingly nine runners left on base in the final four innings.

Berlin needed its defense since it was unable to touch Killingly starter Drew Wilcox, who struck out 13 batters in six innings, allowing just an Anderson single in the fourth. Anderson, while less dominant, was just as effective, giving up just three hits.

"(Wilcox) has the potential to be the most dominant pitcher in the state," Pick said. "They only had a few more baserunners than we did, so our pitcher did pretty darn well."

Anderson may have been the brightest, but he was just one of many stars that helped continue Berlin’s march to Bristol and possibly beyond.

Matt Straub can be reached via email at mstraub@newbritainherald.com