Fairfield American Little League has not had an easy game during the New England Regional tournament. Now the team is just one game away from a ticket to Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series. Thursday night Fairfield recorded a 10-8 victory over Portsmouth, N.H., at Breen Field in Bristol.
Fairfield (4-1) will face Rhode Island (5-0) in the finals Saturday at 7 p.m. live on ESPN.
"This is the place we came here to be, and here we are," said Manager Chris Daley.
"It's pretty awesome," said pitcher Jack Quinn. "I was hoping for my team to get this far, and if we come with our A-game, nobody can beat us."
Fairfield withstood a furious sixth inning rally by New Hampshire. Quinn pitched 5 1/3 innings with three strikeouts for the win. Nick Nardone came in to strike out the final two batters for the save. Chris Howell went 3-for-4 with a home run, double and three RBIs.
The Connecticut state champs lost the first game of the tournament 2-0 to Rhode Island, but then the offense came together. Fairfield scored 19 runs after the loss in three victories.
Fairfield started the game with the lead on a RBI single by Quinn. Fairfield expanded the lead with a second inning two-run home run by Howell.
Leading 3-2, Fairfield exploded for four runs in the third, including a two-RBI single from Eddie Magi and a two-run double by Howell to make it 5-2.
Heading into the bottom of the sixth Fairfield lead 10-4. New Hampshire manager Mike Young said his team went out with the attitude that they "didn't want to make this our last inning of Little League." They rallied, but in the end Nardone shut it down on just six pitches.
Nardone, the team's ace, will start on Saturday.
Fairfield American had never won a state title entering this season, making this the farthest a Fairfield team has ever advanced.
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