New England’s dreams of a Little League World Series title ended on Saturday at Williamsport, as the Gray-New Gloucester team from Maine fell to Media, Pa., 5-3. Gray concludes their season with an 0-2 record at the Little League World Series.
Media, the Mid-Atlantic region champion, had their first four batters get on base in the opening frame, and three runs came across to score, and threatened for more, but aggressive baserunning helped Gray turn a 2-1-6 double play to escape the inning.
Gray answered back with two runs of their own in the bottom of the first, and stellar pitching from both Media’s Nolan Gratton and Gray’s Mason Amergian would keep things the same for the next several innings.
In the second inning, Gray first baseman Mason Wescott made a highlight-reel play, as he stumbled on a grounder and flipped the ball out of his glove to Amergian to get the third out of the inning.
Amergian proved to come up big both on the mound and in the box, as he roped a single to center field that brought Gage Rioux home and tied things up for Gray.
The hometown team, backed by a crowd of 22,809 fans, took over in the sixth and final inning. Nate Saleski drove in Cole Carroll on a line-drive to left field, and Charlie Haenn crossed the plate on a passed ball to add an insurance run.
Trevor Skowronek, the hero of Media’s regional championship game with a walk-off home run to send his team to Williamsport, shut the door with a hitless 1.2 innings.
Though Maine’s run may be over as the New England representative, another New England state plays Sunday morning, as the Metro champion Smithfield, R.I. takes on Media at 11 a.m.
Joe Eachus can be reached at joseph.eachus@globe.com. Follow him @joeeachus_.