OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Two outs.

That was the difference between Fayette-Staples sitting pretty in the winners bracket of the American Legion Baseball Northeast Regional at 2-0 and going home eliminated at 0-2.

For the second-straight night the squad from Saco lost a lead only needing only one more out to clinch victory, losing 7-6 in a 10-inning heartbreaker to Cranston, R.I, at The Ballpark Thursday afternoon. The loss came only about 15 hours after Fayette dropped an 11-inning game to Colchester, Vt., in which they also gave up two leads late.

“Couldn’t close the deal again, last night it was one-strike away twice from ending it, today we had two outs,” Saco head coach Ray Petit said. “It’s definitely disappointing.”

Fayette-Staples held a 6-4 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth, when Keegan Sullivan got two quick outs and looked headed for a sure complete game. But the Saco starter gave up a walk and two singles to make it 6-5, and Cranston nine-hole hitter Tyler Collins blooped a two-strike fastball into center to knot the game at six.

“That number-nine hitter was a pain in our behinds all day,” Petit said of Collins. “He did a nice job, got three hits at key times.”

Sullivan got John Razzino to ground out to send it into extras, but the damage had been done.

Ryan Faria struck out the Saco side in order in the tenth, and Matt Pagano singled off reliever Dillon Dunbar to leadoff Rhode Island’s half. Pagano then stole second, advancing to third on catcher Josh Coffin’s throwing error, and Mike Hayden drove him in on a sac fly to center to bring the curtains down on Saco’s season.

“They played well and its not a very fun way to lose a game, but maybe it will make them tougher,” Petit said. “I’m very proud of them, they made a good showing here.”

Fayette had jumped out to a 6-1 lead after two. Jeff Gelinas singled in a pair in the first inning on a RBI-single that leftfielder Pagano mishandled, letting a third run in.

Rhode Island got one back in the bottom half thanks to a throwing error by Coffin that allowed Razzino to score from second, but Fayette came back with three more of its own in the second thanks to a RBI double by Matt Turnage and another single by Gelinas.

Cranston reliever Conor Fahey came on and shut the door over the next seven innings, using a variety of off-speed stuff to flummox Saco’s dead-red lineup.

“(Fahey) was a little different style of pitcher,” Petit said. “The first guy was velocity, this guy came in the back door. He did a nice job and we didn’t adjust very well.”

But Fahey’s great work didn’t look like it would matter in the end as Sullivan continued to deal off the mound, not allowing a hit through five. Rhode Island did touch up Sullivan for two runs in the sixth and another in the eighth, but he continued to look good into the ninth until it suddenly all came crashing down.

“Late in the game I was trying to hit my spots and just got a little up,” Sullivan said. “They made good hits off of me and we kind of lost the game because of it. But I wanted to be in there. I want to be in there when the game counts.”

Even though Sullivan was up well over 100 pitches when he started to get into trouble, Petit said he didn’t think twice about leaving his workhorse on the mound.

“In that situation, that’s where I wanted him to be,” Petit said. “That last inning he got those two quick outs and then he was up on that guy. He felt good finishing, he just couldn’t get it done.”

Cranston advances to another elimination game tomorrow morning, when they’ll take on Worcester, Mass., at 9:30. Head coach Dave Shiappa said the team that came back in the later innings against Saco is the one he hopes will move forward into the weekend.

“In the first game and a half we only had four hits, and that’s really not our team. This is our team,” he said. “We stay on a high swing and pretty much get going into the tournament. We won five, six straight at the states so we can win this.”