They came into the game on opposite sides of the spectrum, but Vermont and Massachusetts couldn’t have been more evenly matched on Wednesday night.

Vermont’s South Burlington Little League was 2-0, while Massachusetts’s North Andover West Little League was 0-3, already eliminated from moving on.

And that trend continued, as Vermont pulled out an 8-7 victory, stranding the tying and winning runs on base in the bottom of the sixth, yet it was far from the easy win that the records indicated it should have been.

Massachusetts came to play.

“The kids stuck with it,” Massachusetts manager Bill Morin said. “They continued to plug away. I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

For Vermont, the win was crucial in the big picture – it may have needed it to move on. It wound up winning its fourth game the following night, 9-8 over Connecticut’s Southington South Little League, to finish atop the New England standings with a perfect 4-0 mark. It is scheduled for a re-match with Connecticut in the New England title game, was postponed on Saturday with a make-up still to be determined.

“These kids, they come down here and they play hard every time we go out there,” Vermont manager Michael Moore said. “And they never cease to amaze me. Their spirit, the way they stay in the game, they pick each other up. It’s a great group of kids and I’m just here along for the ride with them.”

Vermont looked like it might run away with the game for a little while, it added to a 6-4 lead with two runs in the fifth on bases loaded walks by Tyler Gammon and Nolan Antonicci against Massachusetts pitcher Dylan Caporale. That made the score 8-4, but Massachusetts had one last rally in itself before it put a bow on its trip to Cranston.

Facing Aaron Murakami, who came on with two outs in the second inning and pitched the rest of the way, Massachusetts got consecutive singles from Alex Bodnar and Jack Morin to open the inning, and Brady O’Brien followed that with a single to load the bases.

A fourth straight single, this one by Jason Faro, brought home a run and kept the bases loaded with nobody out. Caporale was up next, and he grounded to third for a force out there, but another run came home to make it 8-7. Massachusetts still had runners on first and second.

“Obviously you start getting a little bit nervous, but our team just has a way of making some things happen,” Moore said. “I really trust the way our team plays defense. Throw strikes, let them put the ball in play and see what happens. Our guys, they make the plays when they need to.”

Vermont buckled down. Murakami recorded a strikeout for the second out of the inning, and a groundout to first was fielded cleanly by Ethan Moore, and he stepped on the bag to end the game.

Unfortunately for Massachusetts, that marked its second straight one run loss. It fell 6-5 to Connecticut on Tuesday.

“The kids have had a great experience,” Morin said. “We have fought every game, unfortunately we didn’t win any of them. The kids, this will be something they’ll remember forever. I wouldn’t have changed anything.”

Vermont got the scoring started in the top of the first with two runs, the first coming after Massachusetts threw the ball around following a single by Seamus McGrath, and the second came on a single by Mason Klesch against starter Brendan Holland. Massachusetts tied it up in the bottom half against Vermont’s pitcher, Antonicci, with an RBI double by Faro and an RBI single by Caporale.

Vermont added three more in the third against Holland – who pitched 3.1 innings – on an RBI single by Klesch, a run-scoring groundout by Moore and an RBI single by James Patrick. Vermont’s sixth run came in the fourth on another RBI hit by Klesch.

Massachusetts got two back in the fourth on a two-run single by O’Brien, before it scratched the three across in the sixth.

“The last two games, we played teams that were undefeated,” Morin said. “But we were like, ‘If we’re going to be going home, we’d like to take something home with us.’ We lost in the last inning last night, and we came up just one run short tonight.”

Vermont will look towards the New England title game, and potentially the Eastern region title game, which will be played between the New England and Mid-Atlantic champions.

No matter what happens, it’s been a great run.

“Every one of these teams down here is a state champion,” Moore said. “They went through a lot to win their respective states, so we don’t take them lightly. We’re Vermont – we just wanted to come down here and try to win a game. We’re sitting here at 3-0. I shouldn’t be surprised because they keep doing this stuff.”