Westbrook’s senior Babe Ruth team lost a narrow 3-1 pitching duel to Vermont on opening day Friday of the Senior New England Babe Ruth Tournament at Leary Field in Portsmouth.

Then the Rookies-sponsored team, representing Maine, fell 9-3 to the Granite State Big Blue of New Hampshire 9-3 Saturday.

In Saturday’s game, Big Blue broke a 1-1 tie in the fifth inning and was keyed by Jeff Jarnot’s homer and Ben Sonberg’s pitching, a 3-hitter, ending the tournament for Maine.

Offensively for Maine, Orry Cummings had a triple and scored a run in the third inning and Vince Micucci had a single in the fifth to knock in two runs.

Jake Bourgeois pitched four strong innings allowing only two hits. Joe Cook came on in relief for Maine in the sixth, allowing only two hits.

Friday, the Maine squad saw a low-scoring game slip away.

Andy Crawford, one of four Yarmouth players added to the Maine team for the post-season, started strong but allowed an unearned run in the second inning and then two runs on a single by Sam Geise in the third.

After that, the Westbrook defense tightened and held Vermont scoreless. Second baseman Steve Sands turned in a brilliant play on a grounder with a runner on and two out in the fourth. He ranged behind the second base bag and backhanded a sharply-hit ball, then flipped it to shortstop Steve Melville for the out.

In the fifth inning, left fielder Micucci caught a deep fly ball then rifled it to the plate, right on target to catcher Shawn McCurdy, who tagged out Ben Petrie trying to score from third.

Bourgeois came on strong in relief, pitching the final three innings of scoreless ball.

But Maine’s bats didn’t wake up until the seventh inning, and by then it was too late.

Consecutive sharply-hit singles by Crawford, McCurdy and Melville (his an RBI-hit) plated Crawford, but that’s all Maine could manage.

“Our bats were quiet tonight, but all through the state tournament, we really hit the ball well,” said Maine manager Mike Cook after Friday’s game.

The Westbrook group went 3-0 in the state tournament, playing three games in less than 30 hours.

“Anyone in this lineup can hit the ball hard,” he said. “Tonight they were off just a little bit.”

The host Seacoast All-Stars and a team from Worcester, Mass. – with many players back from last year’s Senior Babe Ruth World Series finalists – were the two survivors in the winners’ bracket, heading into Monday’s play.