BARRINGTON — As he walked back to his car 30 minutes after the game had ended Sunday night, Matt McGuire was still shaking his head.

“If you saw 100 baseball games, you wouldn’t see one like that,” said the assistant coach of the Portsmouth Little League 12-year-old Majors All-Star team, which had just stunned Barrington by winning the District 2 title in dramatic fashion.

Down 10-6 going into the bottom of the sixth and final inning, the game looked all but lost for Portsmouth. But its tenacious lineup had other ideas, plating five runs to win it, 11-10.

“Unbelievable,” said Mr. McGuire.

It was, in fact, the second walk-off win against Barrington in the District 2 tourney in less than a week. And it each case, it was a single by Jacob Bloom that scored the winning run.

The first walk-off took place on July 13 at the Sherman/Rooney Complex, when Portsmouth won 3-2. Barrington was resigned to the losers’ bracket, but won its next game to earn a rematch with Portsmouth on Saturday. Barrington took that contest, 7-5, to force a final game against Portsmouth for all the marbles.

Although Sunday’s game was played at Sherwood Field in Barrington, Portsmouth was still the “home” team and enjoyed final at-bats.

Down by four runs going into the last frame, Chris Bulk woke up the Portsmouth dugout with a leadoff home run to center on a 2-2 changeup, making it 10-7.

After a pitching change, Justin Parsons struck out, and Simon Roy hit a long double that nearly left the field, putting him on second with one out. Robbie Yates then fouled out, leaving Portsmouth down to its last out.

But the team did not go quietly into the night.

Tim McGuire stroked a long single to center to score Roy, making it 10-8. Connor Freitas then hit a single to left, putting runners on first and second with two outs. Then Will Pierce’s bloop to right scored them both to tie the game, sending the Portsmouth bench and spectators into hysterics.

Before the crowd even had a chance to settle down, Bloom singled to score Pierce, who had advanced to third base on the previous play. Game over.

Unbelievable.

'They don't stop'

“These guys, they just don’t stop,” said Portsmouth’s head coach, Bob Yates. “They just keep coming back, they keeping coming back. I think they’re just stressing us coaches out. I thought I was going to retire after this game, but here we go again.”

The team has been unable to score early in recent games and has made it a habit of pouring it on during the late innings, Mr. Yates said.

“It’s kind of reminiscent of our 10-year-olds, where these guys always had these miracle finishes where they were trailing by six runs and we’d come back in the last inning or two and put something together,” he said. “We’ve been waiting for these guys to hit. They can hit. We just hadn’t hit the way we’re capable of hitting.”

Portsmouth advances to play in the state tournament at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 25.

Here’s the full roster for Portsmouth: Jacob Bloom, Chris Bulk, Sam Essery, Connor Freitas, Henry Gibson, Trevor Gittus, Daniel Janssen, Tim McGuire, Justin Parsons, Will Pierce, Simon Roy, Dan Sullivan and Robbie Yates.

This isn’t the only District 2 Little League championship for Portsmouth this year, as the 11/12 Majors All-Star softball team was crowned champs after beating East Providence earlier this month.

To see and purchase more photos by Rich Dionne click the link below:

BLL vs PLL game 3 for District title