GUILDERLAND — The Guilderland Babe Ruth All-Star 15-year-olds showed some mettle by swinging the metal during pool play at the Eastern New York State Tournament in Clifton Park last weekend.

Guilderland swept the three games it had to play against in its pool to earn the top seed for the semifinals that were played on Tuesday. The championship game was scheduled for Wednesday.

Guilderland swung the bats to come from behind to beat Beacon, 7-1, on Friday. Guilderland then beat Saugerties, 5-4, and finally beat Saratoga in dramatic fashion, 7-6.

The GBR team had clinched its spot in the semifinals after winnings its first two games. So Sunday night’s game against Saratoga was almost meaningless, and Head Coach John Roth substituted freely throughout that night’s game.

Guilderland held a 2-0 lead through the first five innings but Saratoga came back.

Saratoga took advantage of some shaky Guilderland pitching to score six runs in the sixth inning and lead, 6-2, heading into the final inning.

But Guilderland did not quit, scoring five runs in the bottom of the seventh to take the win.

Kyle LaValley drove in the tying run with an RBI single and then scored on Charlie Bouchard’s RBI single to win the game for Guilderland.

The inning started when Zach Caplan drew a walk. Luke Stark also walked to put runners on first and second with one out.

Matt Roth followed with a walk to load the bases, and Steve Anderson then grounded out to first base to drive in Caplan from third.

With the score 6-3, Tommy Sabbag came up with a big hit, a two-run double, that cut the lead to one, 6-5.

LaValley then singled to drive in Sabbag to tie up the game, setting up Bouchard’s heroics.

Sabbag scored in the second inning and LaValley in the third inning to give Guilderland its early 2-0 lead.

On Saturday, Guilderland led Saugerties, 5-1, in the sixth inning and was able to hang on for a 5-4 win.

Beating Beacon

In Friday’s game, Guilderland fell behind, 1-0, in the first inning, but stayed close behind the strong pitching of Joe Berschwinger and solid defensive play.

GBR tied the game, 1-1, in the third inning. Sabbag scored on an RBI by Berschwinger.

Guilderland took the lead in the sixth inning, scoring five runs in the frame, all with two outs.

Chris Heller led off the inning with a walk followed by a walk by Nick Blow.

Stark then doubled to drive in the two runs.

Matt Roth walked to put runners on first and second base — then each moved up a base on a wild pitch — for Anderson.

Anderson ripped a pitch to center field that the Beacon center fielder made a diving play for but couldn’t make the catch.

Anderson ended up with a triple and two RBI’s.

Anderson scored when Sabbag reached base on an error.

Guilderland tacked on one more run in the seventh inning.

Berschwinger scored after leading off the inning with a single. Caplan drove him in with a single.

Berschwinger gave up just one run in seven innings. He gave up only four hits in the contest.

Guilderland had a day off Monday before playing for a spot in the Mid-Atlantic Tournament in State College, Penn. Aug. 2 to 7.