Only four Maine teams have advanced to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and the time between those trips was measured in decades. On Thursday, the Portland Little League All-Star team can cut that typically long drought to 12 months.

With Monday morning’s 7-1 win over Bridgewater, Massachusetts, Portland earned a spot in the New England region championship game, at 7 p.m. Thursday at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center in Bristol, Connecticut. The game will be televised live on ESPN.

Portland will face the winner of Wednesday afternoon’s elimination game between Bridgewater and Salem, New Hampshire. Portland beat Salem in the opening round, 2-0, on Saturday.

“We’ll watch that game closely. We feel confident no matter who we play,” Portland Coach Brian Bechard said in a phone interview early Monday afternoon. “Both of those teams are really good, but we’re good too.”

A win Thursday night sends Portland on to the Little League World Series. The team would be just the fifth from Maine to advance to Williamsport, and first to get a Maine team to the Little League World Series in back-to-back years. Portland would join Gray-New Gloucester, who made it last summer, Westbrook (2005), Augusta (1971), and Suburban (1951), a team consisting of players from towns surrounding Portland.

Portland broke open a close game Monday with five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.

“Today was all about hitting,” Coach Bechard said. “We’ve been playing some real good baseball, but it was focused around pitching and defense. We continued to do that, which kept us in the game… We hit the ball hard. We were hitting balls to the fence and gaps.”

The big bat Monday belonged to Charlie Armstrong, who went 3 for 3 with a pair of doubles and drove in three runs. In Portland’s two games at the New England tournament, Armstrong, Portland’s first baseman and cleanup hitter, is hitting .600, and his slugging earned him a new nickname: Chuck Nasty.

“It was amazing. I was just hitting the ball,” said Armstrong, who said he jumped on a pair of fastballs for his two RBI doubles.

Portland’s Louie Bechard and Eli Peltier, right, celebrate after a 1-0 win over Biddeford on July 26. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

In each game in Bristol, Portland’s pitching has been strong. Saturday, David Rank shut out Salem, allowing seven hits, walking one and striking out six. Monday, Louie Bechard, Brian’s son, started and pitched 4 1/3 innings, allowing three hits, walking two and striking out eight. With his team clinging to a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth inning, Bechard got out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam while allowing just one run. Portland regained the lead in the bottom of the inning.

“I’m thinking I’ve just got to battle and get the next hitter out,” Bechard said. “My fastball was good today, and my curveball. I was getting some pretty good hitters out at the top of the order with that pitch.”

David King struck out three in 1 2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Coach Bechard said each of his pitchers has thrown well in pressure situations, all the way back to the state tournament, including the state final, a 1-0 win over Biddeford.

“These guys aren’t scared or intimidated by anything. We kept stressing we’ve been here before. They kept their heads about them (Monday), Louie especially. I think it was a total team win,” Coach Bechard said.

The team will practice a little over the next few days, but will make sure everyone rests and relaxes, too. No matter what happens Thursday in the New England championship game, Portland has enjoyed the experience. Coach Bechard said the volunteers assigned to his team have been top notch, and the support the team has received from across Maine, not just Portland, has fueled the team’s confidence.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Most kids don’t get this opportunity,” Louie Bechard said. “I’m with my friends playing baseball, and that’s fun.”