In pool play at the 9/10 Eastern Regional, New Jersey’s Upper Township lost one game, and it was a heartbreaker. New Jersey led 10-3 against Pennsylvania’s Aston-Middletown Little League in the final inning, only to surrender 14 runs and lose 17-10.

That loss stuck with New Jersey. Playing the same Pennsylvania team again in the Mid-Atlantic championship game on Friday night, New Jersey found itself in almost the exact same situation – leading in the sixth inning.

This time, New Jersey finished the job.

Pennsylvania started to rally in the bottom of the sixth, pushing a run across and getting the tying run to the plate, but New Jersey’s Joe Garcia made a diving catch in left field to end the game and lift New Jersey to a 9-6 win and a Mid-Atlantic championship.

New Jersey will play against Rhode Island’s Lincoln Little League on Saturday at 11 a.m. for the Eastern region championship.

“It feels absolutely amazing,” said New Jersey manager Mike Liebrand. “I didn’t think this team would make it out of our district, and now we just won the Mid-Atlantic championship. It’s pretty incredible. These kids worked hard, and they deserve to be here.”

The game played out eerily similar to the first time the teams met, as New Jersey took an early 5-0 lead, saw it trimmed to 5-4 in the middle innings, re-upped to 9-4 and then watched Pennsylvania make a final charge.

Pennsylvania saw it unfolding the same way too.

“I thought we had it, to tell you the truth,” said Pennsylvania manager Chris Chelo.

But it was New Jersey’s time to shine, even amongst some controversy.

Leading 9-4 in the top of the fifth inning, New Jersey coach Dan Mercado was ejected by the home plate umpire after a controversial call at first base.

Instead of packing it in with one of their coaches gone, though, New Jersey held strong. It didn’t add to its own run total, but it played solid defense and pitcher Dylan Oliver threw strikes over the final two innings to keep its lead in tact

“It’s even sweeter, because he’s been my right-hand man,” Mike Liebrand said of Mercado. “He’s done more for this team than anybody has. So it’s sweet. It’s really sweet.”

New Jersey jumped out to a 3-0 lead against Pennsylvania starter Christian Reed in the first inning on RBI hits by Cohl Mercado, Ben Liebrand and Tommy Finnegan. It made the score 5-0 in the third, with Finnegan lacing an RBI double and Brendan McGonigle plating another run on a fielder’s choice.

Liebrand looked like he was cruising on the mound as well, keeping Pennsylvania scoreless for 2.2 innings before Pennsylvania finally struck. With the bases loaded, Nikko Partsinakis drew a walk to bring home a run and Brendan Duffy smoked a double into the right-centerfield gap, scoring all three runners, making the score 5-4.

“They’re a very good team,” Chelo said. “We knew we were in a battle. Our kids, we did our best.”

New Jersey struck right back in the top of the fourth. With one out, Ben Hoag singled and Mercado was hit by a pitch. Lieband then walked and Oliver brought in two runs with a double to make it 7-4. The next batter, Tristan Laughlin, followed suit with a double of his own, scoring two more to make it 9-4.

“We’ve been doing that the entire time, getting ahead on teams,” Mike Liebrand said. “We hit the ball well, we score a lot of runs and we have good pitching. That will get you a long way.”

That marked the end of the day for Pennsylvania’s reed, as Jim Hallinan came on to pitch and did his job, throwing a scoreless 2.1 innings.

On the other end, Oliver replaced Liebrand for New Jersey and Pennsylvania tried to chip away. Nick Chelo brought in a run with a single in the fifth to make it 9-5, and then Pennsylvania gave it one final shot in the sixth.

Hallinan reached on an error to start the inning before Roman Tozzi walked. After an out, Reed reached on an infield single to load the bases. But Sam Benvignati hit into a fielder’s choice to make it 9-6, and Partsinakis lined the ball to left where Garcia dove in to make the catch.

New Jersey was free to celebrate it’s Mid-Atlantic crown.

“I can’t believe they’re holding that banner right now,” Mike Liebrand said.

Pennsylvania was certainly disappointed, but knew the larger takeaway from the week was how much it had accomplished.

“It’s fantastic,” said Chris Chelo. “Cranston Little League put on an unbelievable tournament. Our kids had a blast. We’re sad we’re going home, but this is something that they’ll remember for the rest of their lives.”

New Jersey turned its attention the final game.

It has one more it wants to win.

“It’ll be easy to get them focused tomorrow,” Liebrand said. “No matter what happens tomorrow, this is a huge victory for us.”