NEW LONDON — Just three short years ago, the New London High School baseball team was hoisting the Class 1A state championship trophy.

Only four players remain from that magical season.

All four — now seniors — played major roles in the Tigers’ 8-5 win over Notre Dame in a Class 1A district semifinal game on Tuesday at the New London Ball Fields.

New London (15-9) advances to the district championship game to face Pekin (11-9) at 7 p.m. Saturday at New London.

Notre Dame, which split two regular-season games with its SEI Super Conference South Division rival, bows out with a 16-10 record.

“Without this group of seniors, our program would not be where it’s at today,” New London coach Jayden Flowers said. “We have a really good group of seniors. They’ve kept the culture going. They battle every single time. They get these younger kids ready to go. They’re all about it.”

Notre Dame struck first, scoring in the top of the first inning. Landry Haberichter walked, went to second on a ground out by Maddox Diewold and scored on an error.

New London, which lost the previous meeting with the Nikes 13-2, responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning against Notre Dame junior Payne Prottsman.

Senior Memphis Watson walked, took second on a single by senior Gavin Menke-Bailey, advanced to third on a walk to Kye Reighard and scored on a single by senior catcher Tate Welcher. Senior Gage Burden’s sacrifice fly scored Menke-Bailey with the go-ahead run.

“It felt amazing. We were a little shocked the last time they beat us. It felt great to come out and kind of put it in their face right away,” Welcher said. “Just going out and attacking as soon as possible. The first pitch you saw (Flowers) wanted us to be aggressive. Might as well hit the ball.”

Notre Dame scored single runs in each of the second and third innings to regain the lead. Prottsman was hit by a pitch by Reighard in the second and courtesy runner Ryan Kipp scored on a sacrifice fly to deep center field by Haberichter.

Eli Oleson led off the third with a single, stole second and scored on a single by Prottsman.

The Nikes’ lead would be short-lived.

“The thing with our losses is it seems like we don’t know how to play with a lead,” Notre Dame coach Chris Chiprez said. “We get a lead and then we give a run or two runs back. We get another lead and then we give more runs back. It’s frustrating. We just need to work on getting better as a team.”

New London responded with four runs in the fourth to take the lead for good. Menke-Bailey and Welcher each drove in a run, while a wild pitch and a Notre Dame error led to two more runs.

“You can’t give a good team that many bases and expect to win,” Chiprez said. “We harp all year on you have to have at least two of the three facets of the game going — hitting, pitching and defense. I’ll be honest, tonight we had none of that going. We couldn’t hit the baseball. We couldn’t make the plays we needed to make. I think we walked or hit eight batters. In games like this, you can’t do that and think you’re going to win.”

Notre Dame clawed within 6-5 and had a chance to tie or take the lead in the top of the sixth. Senior Jeremiah Crow singled in Tatum Warner and Haberichter with one out.

But Menke-Bailey got Oleson to hit into a fielder’s choice, then struck out Kyler Cameron with runners at second and third.

“You can never count them out,” Flowers said of the Nikes. “They take advantage of those little mistakes. We had some little mistakes, but then we fought through them.”

New London tacked on two big insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth. Welcher singled and scored on a sacrifice fly by Riley Raines and Gage Burden singled and scored on a single by Watson.

The Tigers’ four seniors played major roles in the win.

* Watson was 2-for-2, scored two runs, drove in a run, walked twice and stole a base;

* Menke-Bailey was 2-for-2, scored two runs, drove in a run, walked once and stole a base. On the mound, he allowed two hits and one unearned run in two innings, striking out two in relief of Reighard;

* Welcher was 2-for-3, scored a run and drove in two runs. He also threw out a runner trying to steal second;

* Burden was 1-for-4, scored a run and drove in a run.

“They were the freshmen crew of that run,” Flowers said. “Obviously we were down the first couple years, but as you can see, when you have a culture and you live by it every day, you get stuff like this that happens.”