VERO BEACH, Fla. -- The Roberto Clemente RBI of Jersey City softball club made history Friday in the Nike RBI World Series with the help of a couple of new faces. They'll have a chance to add another chapter to that saga on Saturday.

Starter Layla Killino finished a complete game with six scoreless innings while outfielder Jayla Vasquez dazzled in the field -- and at the plate -- as Clemente pulled away from Houston Astros Nike RBI late in a 6-2 winners bracket title game Friday morning on Teamwork Field.

The win advanced the Garden State team to its first championship game, which will be played Saturday morning at 9:30 ET.

Its first title is finally within reach.

“I’ve got seven returners, all the rest are fresh faces,” said Clemente coach Gabriel Villanueva, whose squad bounced back from an early deficit before taking a one-run lead and adding three insurance runs in the seventh with four two-out hits. “But our girls have that in them. I tell the girls, ‘We’ve got it in us. That dog is in us, and it’s not over until that last pitch.’”

Winning a championship would be redemption for Clemente, which was in the exact same situation last year but saw it end terribly.

After leading the Astros 4-0 in the 2023 tournament’s winners bracket top game, Clemente couldn’t maintain its advantage and lost the crucial tilt. Then Villanueva’s club saw its tournament end, losing 2-0 in an elimination game against Nationals RBI from Washington, D.C.

In their return to historic Jackie Robinson Training Complex, the New Jersey team got it right this time.

“This year, the girls knew what it took, and we had a lot of our returning girls on the field. They knew what it was -- I had four or five of them in today -- and they knew what it took to get over the hump,” Villanueva said.

Friday’s tough win -- Clemente trailed 2-0 after one inning but entered the seventh with a 3-2 lead -- was keyed by the play of newcomers Killino and Vasquez, both Class of 2024 graduates who joined the group for the chance to win a title in the prestigious tournament.

Taking the mound on her 18th birthday, Killino surrendered two runs on three hits in a rocky first, but the right-hander settled in and fired six zeroes at Houston to record her fourth complete game of the summer.

She allowed five hits total, fanned three, walked one and hit two batters.

“After that first inning, I woke up and was dialed in and ready to go,” said Killino, who will play at Jefferson Community College in Watertown, N.Y.

Asked whether she was available to pitch in the title game, the beaming pitcher said, “I hope so.”

The spark plug Vasquez went 3-for-4 batting in the No. 2 spot. She produced a run, an RBI and two stolen bases, plus she crossed with the game-winning marker shortly after swiping her first bag with the game knotted, 2-2.

In the field, Vasquez made consecutive outstanding plays in left field that were worthy of ESPN’s Top 10 Plays of the Week for their combined execution and oddity.

Leading off the seventh, Houston’s Cassidy Cantera popped a fly into left that Vasquez snared in an all-out forward dive, sliding on the artificial turf and displaying the ball in her glove.

On the very next pitch, Penelope Saenz produced an identical fly, with Vasquez charging in again, laying out and duplicating the face-first sliding grab. She was then mobbed by third baseman Myiah Sutton and shortstop Lisa Frias.

“I did my job,” said Vasquez, who will be a member of Montclair State’s team this upcoming season. “We’re going to bed early tonight, maybe take a nap right now.”

The Clemente staff agrees that she is the club’s MVP and spearheads the offense.

“That girl’s been amazing,” Villanueva said of Vasquez, who came in as a second baseman. “I can’t even explain what she means to our program. Every time I go back to my room and look through the books, she’s our leading hitter. Whatever is asked of her, she never questions it.

“She’s been a great teammate and a leader.”

Shortly thereafter, the Astros did their part to earn a rematch in Saturday’s winner-take-all title game by beating the Atlanta Braves Nike RBI squad 3-0 in the afternoon game.

Led by Carmen Bivins’ 4-for-4 output, Houston produced eight hits in the third matchup.

Starter Bella De Los Santos, the losing pitcher against Clemente, crafted a complete-game shutout with nine strikeouts, including the side to end it, and allowed just three hits.

Between games, Houston coach Megan Hays said she could only remember once when her girls had a tougher time going through the brackets, but she was confident they would respond.

“I think the first time we won it we came out of the pool as the four seed and played the other side’s one seed. They’re going to dig in and grind,” she predicted before her group’s shutout victory.

Houston took all three meetings from the Braves, also beating them 7-6 and 6-2 in the week-long tourney, to make it to the championship game for the sixth straight season.