Last season, the NCHS boys baseball team was 4 outs away from its first State title in more than 60 years, only to see it slip through their fingers.
Yesterday, they took their first step toward the elusive championship by defeating East Haven 4-2 at Mead Park.
Led by senior Brian Moran's 2 hits and senior Andrew Casali's strong 6 innings pitched, the Rams broke open a 2-2 tie in the bottom of the 6th.
Moran started the inning off with a single and scored the go-ahead run after consecutive bunt singles and a dropped fly ball.
After adding an insurance run on a sac fly, sophomore hurler David Giusti preserved the win by stranding two Yellow Jacket runners with a strikeout and groundout to end the game.
The #4 Rams next take on #13 Bethel in the 2nd Round of the Class L playoffs today at Mead starting at 3:30pm.
