The Warwick Continental 12-year-old all-stars started Monday’s game at Warwick National with a pair of infield singles. They promptly left both men on base, putting the ball in play just once the rest of the inning.

Apparently, they weren’t in the mood for manufacturing runs.

At the end of the night, nobody seemed to mind.

Max Lupovitz belted two home runs and Joe DeGiulio hit another as Continental powered past National 4-1 in the District 3 winners’ bracket final. In addition to the power show, James Meizoso tossed a complete-game two-hitter for the Continental stars, who advanced to the district championship with the victory. They’ll play Friday at home against the winner of Wednesday’s elimination game between National and Central Coventry.

Whichever team comes out of that game will be facing a Continental squad that might be hitting its stride. Though they didn’t put up a ton of runs Monday night, the runs they did score came home in style.

“We’ve been struggling with the bats since Narragansett,” Continental manager Al Mann said. “We’ve been winning with pitching and defense. We had the opportunity in the first inning to play some small ball. We got two guys on and then we went down 1-2-3. But the bats came out after that.”

National actually struck first, with Brady Chant crushing the second pitch Meizoso threw. The ball sailed over the fence in right-center and when Chant stomped on home plate, National had itself a 1-0 lead.

For a brief moment, it looked like Chant’s blast was just the beginning.

Continental made sure it wasn’t.

One pitch after the homer, Matt Creamer ripped a line drive to deep right. It might have carried over the fence, but Continental right-fielder Nate Duffney sprinted to his right and made a reaching catch for the out.

And it was a big out.

“I thought the thing that saved the game was when my right-fielder made that catch,” Mann said. “That was just a great catch.”

National manager Pete Palermo agreed.

“It really seemed to get them believing again,” he said. “We had them on the ropes a little bit. That drops in, you never know.”

Instead, the catch marked a new beginning for Continental. Meizoso buckled down and didn’t allow another hit until the sixth inning, shutting down a National team that had scored 22 runs in its last two games. After the home run Monday, National only reached base on a walk and two errors. Meizoso finished with 10 strikeouts.

“The kid really pitched a great game,” Palermo said. “He kept us off balance all night, and we had trouble getting any kind of rhythm. I thought he pitched real smart. He made a lot of good adjustments. We were on his fastball early, but he really started to mix speeds and he got us off-balance.”

Continental’s offense did the rest.

Lupovitz led off the second inning and hit a line-drive home run to tie the game. The next inning, DeGiulio hit a blast to right-center that hit the tops of the tall trees behind National’s fence.

Later in the inning, Meizoso hit a single and Lupovitz stepped in again. National pitcher Zach Brehmer got ahead 0-2 but missed his spot on the next pitch. Lupovitz made him pay with a towering two-run homer to right.

“I was just going for a base hit, like usual,” Lupovitz said. “A couple of coaches said I was dancing too much in the batter’s box, so I loaded a little earlier and I just hit it. I was surprised when I hit that second one. It felt great, though.”

Continental didn’t get much more offense. Creamer came on in relief and allowed singles to Joe Christianson, Tyler Ekroth and Lupovitz, but nothing else.

Thankfully for Continental, four runs were more than enough.

Meizoso needed 82 pitches to finish off the complete game. His only trouble spot after he got the lead came in the fourth, when he walked Ian Kent before falling behind 2-0 to Mike McCaffrey. But he eventually got McCaffrey to hit a ground ball for the final out of the inning. After Creamer hit a leadoff single in the sixth, Meizoso struck out the side to end the game.

“He’s just a great kid and a great pitcher,” Mann said. “He’s got all the stuff.”

The defense behind Meizoso wasn’t quite as steady as usual but still strong. Continental made three errors – the first they’ve made all summer – but also delivered some key plays, particularly in the outfield.

“My outfield is great,” Mann said. “[Assistant coach Mike Giard] said it’s the best outfield he’s ever seen. E.J. Nygren is great in center and we’ve got [David] Cusack, Duffney and Jack Sullivan, who are all equal players. They all do a great job when they’re in the lineup. When you play good defense and your pitcher doesn’t walk people, you’re in good shape.”

And that’s exactly the position the Continental stars find themselves in. They’ll host the championship Friday night at 7 p.m., and their opponent will have to beat them twice to get the title. Lupovitz is scheduled to start the title game.

“I’m really proud of them, and I’m happy for them,” Mann said. “We’re in a good spot. Now, somebody’s got to beat us twice.”

National is hoping to get that chance. Results of Wednesday’s game with Central Coventry were unavailable at press time, but Palermo expected a battle. National beat Central Coventry 10-3 in the winners’ bracket final.

“Last game was real tight,” Palermo said. “We pulled away at the end, but I think the game was a lot tighter than the score showed. I expect it to be a battle. We’re going to have to give our best effort.”