A wet field and unseasonably cool temperatures greeted players and fans at the opening day of the 9/10 Eastern Regional in Cranston, R.I, on Saturday. In the first game in the New England bracket, neither Connecticut nor Maine seemed to mind.

The teams were mirror images with great defense and strong pitching, but Connecticut's Mystic Little League all-stars took advantage of their scoring chances and held off a late charge from Scarborough, Maine, to win 6-4 in a well-played opener.

“It was a good start for us,” said Connecticut manager Dave Mewha.

Maine nearly took control right out of the gates when it loaded the bases in the top of the first inning on a walk, a double by Nic Frink and a single by Cade Sullivan. But Connecticut starting pitcher Jason Erb quickly settled in and ended the threat with a pair of strikeouts.

“Right out of the gate, they had the bases loaded,” Mewha said. “We got out of that one. We got past those early jitters, our pitcher settled in.”

Connecticut threatened in its half and didn't come up empty. Timmy Lynch walked and eventually came around on a wild pitch. Nick Carney then delivered an RBI double, staking Connecticut to a 2-0 lead.

That made Maine's fruitless first inning sting even more.

“You don't want the air taken out of them, but that was tough,” said Maine manager Corey Frink. “You're missing a couple of runs right there where you could have built some momentum.”

Maine got on the board in the second on an RBI triple by Peter O'Brien, but Connecticut steadily built a lead from there. Erb had a two-run single in the second inning and Cameron McGugan had a two-run double in the third, making it a 6-1 game.

Meanwhile, Erb pitched scoreless frames in the third and fourth innings as Connecticut stuck with its ace for the maximum 75 pitches.

“He's been our ace all year,” Mewha said. “We were hoping to get him out at 50. When that didn't happen, then it doesn't matter, so you just go for the win.”

Maine came to life against Erb in the fifth, getting a base hit by O'Brien, a walk to T.J. Liponis and a base hit by Frink. O'Brien came home on a wild pitch.

Colin Anderson relieved Erb, and Ryan Kelly greeted him with an RBI infield single. But Anderson quickly settled down and struck out the next two batters to end the inning, keeping his team up 6-3.

“We brought Colin in to get out of a jam and he did a great job,” Mewha said.

Maine made one more push in the top of the sixth on consecutive doubles by O'Brien and Liponis, which made it 6-4, but Lynch induced a groundout to end the game.

Connecticut goes to 1-0 in pool play and will return to action Sunday against New Hampshire. Maine also plays Sunday, against Vermont.

“The focus going forward is staying with what got us here,” Frink said. “We have to always treat the game as if the score is 0-0.”

DAY ONE SCORES

Connecticut 6, Maine 4

Pennsylvania 3, Delaware 2

Rhode Island 8, Massachusetts 5

New Jersey 10, New York 5