For years, coaches of the Manchester Jutras senior American Legion baseball team have tossed Bedford, Goffstown and Manchester players into a diamond- shaped mixing bowl and consistently concocted a winning recipe.

Perhaps Tim Conway, who never played Legion ball, stole a page from the Jutras cookbook. On Thursday, Aug. 7, the 24- year-old Stevens-Buswell Post No. 54 manager guided Bedford’s inaugural junior American Legion baseball team to a state title.

To reach the pinnacle, Conway found a way to meld 18 players from two towns and a city into one successful unit.

“For me, I didn’t know a lot of the players, so I was kind of going into a mystery, but one of the big things for us was building team chemistry. I mean, we have Central kids and West kids playing together, so we really tried to get rid of that rivalry and let them play together,” said Conway, following Bedford’s 5- 2 semifinal win over top-seed Dover. “They were definitely lacking energy when they first came together, mostly because not everyone knew each other. They were quiet on the field. Once we established that bond amongst one another, the level of energy went way up. Now, they’re all talking on the field and supporting each other.”

It was no coincidence, said Conway, that everything was clicking when Bedford won its ninth game in a row and laid claim to the 2008 state crown by beating Dover for the second time in three days with a 10-0, five-inning mercy-rule triumph.

“I think we just had their number,” he said. “At this point in the season, we just had them physically and mentally beat. They also ran out of pitching, and our pitching was right where it needed to be.”

In the title tilt, Conway sent his ace, Goffstown High School’s Rob Hunt, to the mound. He tossed a completegame shutout, striking out nine batters and allowing no walks and three hits.

Conway said his stopper threw 40 strikes in 50 pitches. Offensively, Brian Comiskey and Zach Husband led off the game with back-to-back walks.

Andrew Klimm plated Comiskey with a single, stole second and forced an error that allowed Husband to score from third.

Matt Woodmansee of Bedford, who led with his bat throughout the tournament, took a free pass to put runners on first and second, and Alex Murphy singled Klimm home.

Sam McClain drove in Woodmansee with a two-out base hit to put Dover in an early 4-0.

After three innings of cruising, Bedford again put its foot on the gas in the fifth and sped to the championship.

Hunt and Klimm each took a base on balls, and Woodmansee singled to load the bases. Hunt scored on a Murphy walk, and Klimm on a wild pitch.

Marc Russomanno found a hole on the left side of the infield to bring Woodmansee home before Sam McClain and Josh Dobbins worked consecutive walks to push Murphy across the plate and, again, juice the bases.

Russomanno notched a run when Comiskey was hit by a pitch, and Klimm ended the game in walk-off fashion with a base hit to deep right-center field, scoring McClain. Bedford heads to West Warwick, R.I., where it competes in the Eastern Regional tourney Aug. 15 to 17.

“We’re on an absolute tear right now, so our expectations are extremely high for the (regional) tournament,” said Conway. “We expect to win it all.”