PORTLAND – Yarmouth Coach Jay Tobias said his team’s offense was quiet Sunday in a 2-1 victory against York in its opener in the Little League state tournament for 11- and 12-year-olds.

Thursday was a different story.

Yarmouth had no problems with offense in a 10-0 victory against Old Town at Payson Park, and advanced to the state championship game in the six-team, double-elimination event.

Unbeaten Yarmouth will play at 10 a.m. Saturday against the winner of today’s elimination game between York and Old Town, who will meet at 5:30 p.m. at Payson Park.

Should Yarmouth lose Saturday, the if-necessary game will be played at 10 a.m. Sunday, with the winner advancing to the Northeast Regional starting next weekend at Bristol, Conn.

Yarmouth scored its first run in the second inning when Joe DeFusco came in on a single by C.J. Cawley.

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In the fifth, pitcher Luke Klenda hit his second homer of the tournament — he also connected Sunday against York.

“Luke’s amazing,” Tobias said. “He’s been improving his game week to week. He’s obviously hitting the ball well with some timely home runs.”

Yarmouth has allowed one run in its two games.

“Our pitching has been fantastic all the way through,” Tobias said.

DeFusco, the starting pitcher Thursday, ran into first-inning trouble when Old Town loaded the bases with no outs, but then didn’t score.

“Joe (DeFusco) pitched his heart out and got us out of that jam,” said Tobias.

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Chris Romano of Yarmouth went 3 for 4 with two singles and a double, and scored twice.

DeFusco, elevated from the ninth spot in the batting order to cleanup after hitting a home run Sunday, was 2 for 4 with a single, double and three runs.

“The score definitely doesn’t define the quality of Old Town,” Tobias said. “They are a very good team and it felt like they were staying in there through the entire game.”

Old Town totaled five hits.

“Not a lot of timely hitting for us and not a ton of total hits for us,” said Old Town Coach Troy Sheehan. “The lack of hits seemed like every time we hit it, it was at one of their guys.”

Yarmouth totaled 11 strikeouts in the six-inning game.

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Old Town loaded the bases in the first on singles by Kaleb Gifford and Nick Boutin, then a walk to Nick Magoon.

Austin Sheehan had two of the five hits for Old Town.

“We have to play smart baseball, play smart defense, and have to get some hits,” Troy Sheehan said. “End of story.”

Staff Writer Austin Pollack can be contacted at: 791-6356 or at:

apollack@pressherald.com

 


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