Middleboro Little Leaguers Beat Maine to Advance to World Series

There is quite a pool of young baseball talent in and around the SouthCoast.  On the heels of Fairhaven Acushnet's trip down to the Cal Ripken World Series over the past week, congratulations are in order for Middleboro's 12U All-Stars.

They are on their way down to Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Middleboro, which represented Massachusetts in the New England regional tournament, knocked off Bangor, Maine, on Thursday. The game was played in Bristol, Connecticut, and nationally televised on ESPN.

Now, Middleboro will exchange their orange, black and white uniforms for maroon and gray as they represent all of New England in the World Series tournament.

The bats were alive for Middleboro Thursday, as they knocked around Bangor pitching for a whopping 10 runs. Jayden Murphy was the hero, striking out nine batters and blasting a two-run homer that landed somewhere near Hartford.

The international tournament kicks off on Wednesday, Aug. 17.

Middleboro will face off against the Southeast region of the United States for their first game, to be broadcast on ESPN.  The first pitch from Lamade Stadium is at 3 p.m. If they can pull off a win, they will advance to face the Mountain region next Friday afternoon.

For the first time in more than a decade, a Massachusetts team will represent New England at the Little League World Series. The last time a team from Massachusetts played in the series was when Peabody made it into the tournament in 2009, a year before most of Middleboro's current team was born.