The Edgewood/South Elmwood Junior League team still has high hopes for the state tournament, even with the way Saturday’s opener went.

Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong in a 15-4 loss to Barrington. If ESE cleans it up, it’s confident it can play with anyone, and it furthered that idea Sunday in an 8-5 win in an elimination game against Cumberland.

ESE still has an uphill climb, as it is scheduled to take on either Barrington or Chariho in Wednesday’s loser’s bracket final, and it will have to win that game and then two more over the weekend in order to win the state championship.

But it’s alive.

“From what I’ve seen so far, I still feel that we are definitely in the competition,” said ESE manager John Robison. “We can beat any team that we’ve seen, but they’re good too. If we play our best we can win.”

Saturday started off on the wrong foot before the day even arrived, as scheduled starting pitcher Justin Neary was hit in the face with a baseball on Friday and broke his nose, forcing him out of the tournament.

That forced ESE into major changes not only on the mound, but in the field, and it had a ripple effect.

“That kind of threw our pitching off, because we were sort of set up for the weekend,” Robison said.

Kennsey Marte got the start on the mound instead and didn’t pitch badly, yet his defense did him no favors. The score went from 4-2 to 15-2 quickly, and Barrington closed the game out in just five innings

ESE committed seven errors.

“They were a good team, they were solid,” Robison said. “But going into the game, watching them warm-up, watching us warm-up, I thought we had a good chance to win that game. We just didn’t play up to our capabilities.”

The next day, though, that loss was in the past, and ESE found the win column.

“They showed up the next day and it was long gone,” Robison said.

Dan Estman got the start on the mound and threw strikes, and this time around the defense made the plays in the field.

ESE led 5-2 in the sixth inning before Estman was removed form the game with runners on first and second. Zach Minicucci came into the game, but Cumberland found a way to stratch three runs across on slow-hit balls around the infield. That tied the score at five.

But as quickly as it lost the lead, ESE got it back. It scored three times in the bottom of the sixth and Minicucci set Cumberland down one-two-three in the seventh to earn the win.

The focus is on Wednesday, as ESE is confident that if it gets through that game it has enough pitching to contend on the weekend and potentially win twice.

If ESE does reach the weekend, it would play Saturday at 3 p.m. and then, it hopes, again on Sunday at 3 p.m. It will be doing so without catcher and No. 4 hitter Alex Martinez, who is in South Carolina for an AAU commitment, but ESE is still excited about its chances.

“If we get to the weekend, we can definitely win the last two games,” Robison said. “Tomorrow’s game is going to be a big game. The kids are going to have to play their best.”