ANDOVER, Mass. – Melrose’s Dylan Cote drove in the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning Friday to give his team a 6-5 win over the Pittsfield Little League All-Stars in an elimination game at the State Tournament.

 

Pittsfield rallied for two runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a 5-4 lead after trailing for three innings.

 

But Melrose came back with a run in the bottom of the sixth to tie it and force extra innings.

 

After a scoreless seventh, Pittsfield went down, 1-2-3, in the top of the eighth, giving the Section 3 champions a chance to win it.

 

Weston Wigglesworth started the game with a solo home run, but Melrose answered with a run in the bottom of the first to tie it.

 

In the second, Spencer Kotski, Jacob Knauth and Logan Slater each had a single in a two-run rally for Pittsfield.

 

But Ryan Silva doubled in a three-run rally for Melrose in the bottom of the second that gave it a 4-3 advantage.

 

Wigglesworth, Mateo Fox and Mike Ressler split the pitching duties for Pittsfield, combining to strike out 13 hitters.

 

Slater went 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs.

 

Melrose survives to face Bridgewater in an elimination game on Saturday morning. The winner of that game will face Section 4’s Acton-Boxboro, a 13-5 winner over Bridgewater in the winners’ bracket on Friday, in Sunday’s state title game.