WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — A group of Maine students will soon return to school with an impressive icebreaker for the first day of class.
The 14 players on the Gray-New Gloucester/Raymond Little League team became the first Mainers to play a game in the Little League World Series since 2005. No, they're not old enough to remember.
However, Maine didn't play the way they've been accustomed to this summer and lost to Washington 10-0 in a four-inning game.
The LLWS is a double-elimination tournament. So, Maine will play again. On Saturday, Gray-New Gloucester/Raymond will take on Media, Pennsylvania at 2 p.m. in an elimination game.
Manager Brad Shelley said after the Northwest Region champs scored in the second inning that it was the first time his team has trailed a game all summer.
"Their pitcher kept our kids off balance, as you can see we had two baserunners the entire game," he added. "And defensively, just some miscues on our part [that] we don’t normally make, and that’s baseball, it just got away from us there."
Thursday's game was also the first competitive baseball action the team has experienced in one week.
Shelley admitted that gap was tough and showed on the field. The players did practice every day, but it's impossible to simulate playing in a nationally-televised game in front of thousands of people.
The manager of a team that won 12 straight games this summer said he told the boys to keep their heads held high and that they'll learn from their mistakes and will prepare to play their best baseball Saturday.
In the meantime, Shelley told the team to remember what they've accomplished.
"They're at the World Series," he said in the postgame press conference. "We live to see another day, play another game, and we'll be back and ready to battle."
Down, but not out.
Saturday's elimination game could very well feature a packed crowd at Howard J. Lamade Stadium as the local Pennsylvania team representing the Mid-Atlantic region brought plenty of fans to its first game Wednesday.
Of course, Maine fans traveled well despite the nearly eight-hour drive.
One Mainer in the stands was the only one from our state in attendance who knows what it's like to play in the Little League World Series.
Jeff Keezer was a pitcher on the 1971 Augusta Little League team that became the second in our state to qualify for the tournament.
Before the game, Feezer threw out the first pitch. It was a strike right down the middle, showing the young Mainers that the veteran still has it.
The complex in Williamsport has certainly changed over the last 52 years, but Keezer still remembers the first time his Maine team saw Lamade Stadium.
"We couldn’t believe what we saw, it was totally amazing, it blew our minds," he said.
In 1971, Keezer said the tournament was a win-or-go-home format, a potential remark of foreshadowing.
"I think the double-elimination is better, [if a] team has a bad game, they can keep going," he added.
Maine will look to keep going. A win on Saturday puts Maine into another elimination game on Sunday.