The Bangor Little League All-Stars faced Middleborough, Massachusetts in Bristol, Connecticut on Thursday evening in a rematch of a 10-4 Bangor win on Monday morning. This time though it was for the New England Regional Championship and a spot in the World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania next week. The team from Massachusetts proved to be too much on this day, riding the pitching and hitting of Jayden Murphy to a 10-1 win.
Jacoby Harvey, who struck out 14 and only allowed one earned run in the win on Monday, struggled early on with his control. He allowed a run in the first inning, escaped a bases loaded jam in the second after three walks, before Jacob Landers unloaded the bases for Massachusetts in the third with a three-run triple to extend the lead to 4-0. Harvey left in the top of the fourth inning with one out after throwing 86 pitches (pitch count). Caden Ellis added an RBI single in the frame off Gavin Hughes for a five run advantage. After Bangor gained some momentum getting on the scoreboard at 5-1 on a bases loaded walk to Patrick Guite in the last of the fourth, Murphy hit a long two-run homerun to left field in the top of the fifth to make it 7-1. Middleborough added on with three more runs in the sixth, advancing to the LLWS that begins next Wednesday in Williamsport.
Murphy went 4.0 innings in the victory allowing one run with nine strikeouts, and the two-run homerun at the plate. Landers pitched the final 2.0 innings and struckout five, while also doing it with the bat with the big three-run triple in the third. Harvey would strikeout seven in the defeat in 3.1 innings of work. Guite walked twice in the game and had the only RBI. Bangor was seeking to become the fourth Maine team to reach the big series in Pennsylvania, and the first since Westbrook did it back in 2005.
