Every once in while, a Scarborough Little League parent will mention the city that must not be named and Neal Pratt will wince.

Williamsport.

Pratt is manager of a baseball team that, for the third year in a row, has won the championship of District 6, an area that encompasses Cumberland and Oxford counties.

The same core group of boys won the 2010 state tournament for 9 & 10-year-olds and the 2011 state tournament for 10 & 11-year-olds. So you can excuse the parents, if not the players, for looking ahead and dreaming of the Little League World Series, held each August in South Williamsport, Penn.

Just don’t include Pratt, who’s also a lawyer and chairman of the board of trustees for the Cumberland County Civic Center.

“I told them to knock it off,” said Pratt, who is more concerned with Scarborough’s opening game in the state tournament next Saturday afternoon against the winner of a contest between the champions of District 2 (Waldo County or Rockland) and District 4 (East Biddeford).

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Six district champions advance to the state tournament, whose winner advances to the New England tournament in Bristol, Conn. The New England champ earns a ticket to Williamsport for the Little League World Series.

Only three teams from Maine ever have made it all the way to Williamsport: Westbrook in 2005, Augusta East in 1971 and a regional team from Greater Portland in 1951.

“We don’t have any of those corn-fed kids you see on TV in the Little League World Series,” Pratt said. “This is just a group of kids who play together and emphasize team. From 1 through 12, everyone finds a way to contribute.”

At the moment, Pratt is having difficulties finding hotel rooms in Bar Harbor, site of this year’s state tournament for players up to 12 years old (as of May 1). That’s partly because he refused to look beyond an always-challenging district tournament, which Scarborough won by defeating Falmouth 5-1 Tuesday night. All three District 6 championships have pitted Falmouth and Scarborough, which last year needed to beat Falmouth twice after initially losing a winners’ bracket final.

“My nephew plays for Falmouth and they have a tremendous team,” said Rick Knight, manager of the last Maine team to play in the Little League World Series, the 2005 boys from Westbrook. “I thought Falmouth would end up winning it, so (Scarborough has) to be very, very good.”

Indeed, Scarborough is bidding to become the first team in Maine Little League history to win three consecutive state titles in three different age groups.

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Not even Knight’s boys of Westbrook were successful in doing so. They won the 9-10 crown in 2003 but, with half of them playing up a level, failed to advance from District 6 in the 10-11 tourney of 2004.

Unlike Westbrook, Scarborough restricts its 11-12 team to all 12-year-olds, and its 10-11 team to all 11-year-olds, so that no younger kid displaces an older child from an all-star team.

“That’s different from the practice in many leagues,” Pratt said.

The result is that Scarborough enters this year’s state tournament — which gets under way Friday afternoon on Bar Harbor’s town field — with a veteran team that has been playing together since they were 9 and entered the 9-10 district tournament as Scarborough’s “B” team.

The infield — catcher Owen Garrard, third baseman Alex Dobecki, shortstop Morgan Pratt, second baseman Ogden Timpson and first baseman Jared Brooks (or Zoltan Panyi when Brooks is pitching) — has remained largely intact throughout a tournament run that now stands at 24-3 in district and state tournaments over the past three summers and rides a 12-game winning streak dating back to last year’s District 6 tournament.

The other members of the team are Justin Tanguay, Zach DeQuattro, Nick Anderson, Glade Fredenburg, Connor Kelly and Andrew Goodwin. Assistant coaches are Adam Brooks and Keith Goodwin.

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So far this year, Scarborough has trailed only once in five games, overcoming a 5-2 deficit (5-4 entering the final inning) against Cape Elizabeth in the South Portland bracket of the District 6 tournament before a two-run homer by Brooks paved the way to a 7-5 victory.

Falmouth, which also took a game from Scarborough in the 9-10 district tournament two years ago, has invited Pratt’s team to help prepare for Bar Harbor with a Wednesday scrimmage during which Pratt plans to mix players from both teams.

“I think the kids will have a blast,” said Pratt, praising the classy gesture by Falmouth Manager Craig Aube.

“What a great way to build sportsmanship.”

Then it will be on to Bar Harbor, where, until the tournament ends, nobody from Scarborough will be allowed to mention Bristol, much less Williamsport.

“We’re going to be focused,” Pratt said, “on five very good teams.”

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Staff Writer Glenn Jordan can be contacted at 791-6425 or at:

gjordan@pressherald.com

Twitter: GlennJordanPPH

 


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