The Westbrook Eagles won the 2006 Little League city championship by defeating Sappi, 3-0, at Warren Field.

Threes were wild for Adam Begos in the win as he pitched three hitless innings, while recording three hits of his own and driving in all three runs.

Paul Patrotti pitched the final three innings for the Eagles, giving up only one hit, a single to Trevor Bates.

The Eagles took the lead, 1-0, in the first inning when Begos singled to drive in Joe Quinlan, who had also singled.

The champions added insurance runs in the fifth. After Quinlan walked and Patrotti singled, Begos hit a two-out, driving in both runners.

Though the Eagles had chances to open a wider margin, but strong fundamental defense by Sappi kept the game close.

In the second inning, with runners on second and third, Quinlan crushed a line drive to center field. Jim Beahm not only caught the line drive, but fired it to second base to double off the runner, ending the inning.

Then in the fifth, Magnes Lewis hit a rocket to the fence in right center field but was nailed at third on a relay throw from Sappi’s Keenan Lowe.

The Eagles matched Sappi’s defense, using strong plays of their own to preserve the shutout.

Quinlan robbed Dallas Turpin of a base hit in the third inning as he backhanded a ground ball deep in the hole at second and threw out the runner at first.

In the top of the sixth, Sappi’s Josh Ames hit a short into the gap in left center field, but Lewis caught it on a dead run for the Eagles.

“It’s the same old story that good pitching, brilliant defense and timely hitting wins championships,” Eagles coach Rick Knight said.

In all, nine players recorded putouts in the field for the Eagles.

The game capped a strong playoff runs for Sappi, who upset Kiwanis, 4-1, on Wednesday. However, that victory left them without any veteran pitchers available for the championship game.

The Eagles were led all year by veterans Matt Moody, Adam Begos and Joe Quinlan. The trio helped their team overcome an opening-day loss in which they recorded eight fielding errors. According to Knight, they will be impossible to replace.

“This was an extremely dedicated team that always showed up for practice and gave me 100 percent all the time,” Knight said. “They played as they practiced.”

The win capped a 17-game winning streak and was the second city championship in the last three years for the Eagles.

Westbrook Little League will now focus their attention on the all-star teams, which will be competing with other local towns for the District Six tournaments over the next few weeks.

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(Italics) Material contributed by the league was used in this report.

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