"They just owned us this year," said Middletown Manager Al Leyva. "This is a pitchers’ league, and it goes down to key hits in key situations. That’s what they’ve done all year -- and (not doing that) was our problem all year."

The formula worked again for Torrington.

The Twisters’ Bobby Garza (7 hits, 9 strikeouts, 2 walks) and Giants’ Michael Koehler (10 hits, 8 strikeouts, 1 walk) both pitched strong, complete games.

The difference was that Garza worked his way out of jams in five of his nine innings, including the first three. For Koehler, five of the 10 hits he gave up contributed to Torrington’s two scoring innings (the sixth and seventh) -- all after he posted the first two outs.

"I started out uncomfortable. Then, about the sixth inning, I finally got loose," said Garza, whose infield got him out of the first inning with a double play, after Nathan Moffie (2-for-4) made it to third, then had their only two errors as part of his problems in the second and third.

In the bottom of the sixth (this was Middletown’s "home game"), discomfort and comfort both seemed acute. Tim D’Aquila and Bryan Maler (2-for-4) produced more discomfort with back-to-back one-out singles for the Giants. But, following a coach’s conference on the mound, looseness finally took over.

Garza got a pop-up and strikeout to get out of the sixth, then struck out all three Giant batters in the seventh on 12 pitches.

Meanwhile, Koehler had no problems he couldn’t handle for his first five innings, on just four Torrington hits. But, two outs into the sixth, the Torrington clock went off-- time for timeliness.

Brandon Roberts (2-for-4) started it with a drive to left; John Ingram (3-for-4) moved him to second with a single to left center; and Emory Davies (2-for-3) brought him home on another line-drive single to center.

Next inning, it happened again on two more singles. With two outs, Larry Best singled through the left-side hole and stole second. Zak Farkas produced the insurance run with a single to left.

In a pitcher’s night in a pitcher’s league, that’s all it took.

Twister catcher Davies said, "I’m a better player just by catching the pitcher’s we’ve got."

Pitching and timely hitting brought Torrington to 32-10, while Middletown’s season ends at 18-25.

The Twisters wait for tomorrow night’s winner in Newport for Friday’s opponent, at Fuessenich, to begin the Division Championship series.

Newport evened its series (1-1) with Danbury, 2-1, at Danbury, Wednesday night.