SCARBOROUGH — Shawn Gaudette is confident that’s his team’s recent run of success is a direct result of one thing ”“ commitment.

“I don’t have a practice less than three hours a night, said Gaudette, the manager of the Saco 9/10 Little League All-Stars. “They can go home after two hours but they don’t. They get their parent’s permission to stay and they do a scrimmage every night against each other. It’s baseball after baseball with them and the parents are so understanding.”

All that time and effort paid dividends Sunday as Saco took the first step toward its ultimate goal with a 7-3 victory over Hampden-Newburgh in the 9/10 Boys Little League Baseball Maine State Championship game played at Peterson Field.

With its ninth straight victory Saco advances to the 9/10 Year Old Eastern Regional Tournament beginning Saturday in Cranston, R.I.

Saco, who earned its second straight 9/10 Maine State Championship, got off to what has become a traditionally quick start as they scored a pair of runs in their first at-bat to grab a lead they would never relinquish. Kobe Gaudette and Grant Dow opened the game with back-to-back singles and one out later Patrick Sawyer drew a walk to load the bases. Luke Ham’s groundout to first pushed home the first run of the contest and Dow scored on a wild pitch to give Saco an early 2-0 advantage.

“We’ve almost always scored in our first inning and we’ve only been behind twice,” said Shawn Gaudette. “We’ve never had to play from behind in a game that really had our kids back on their heels.”

Hampden-Newburgh cut the deficit in half in the second inning. Mychal Beaulieu led off the frame with a single and made his way around to third on a wild pitch and a stolen base. Saco starting pitcher Kobe Gaudette struck out the next two batters before issuing three straight walks to score Beaulieu to make it a 2-1 game.

Saco upped its lead to 7-1 by scoring single runs in the fourth and fifth innings and adding another three in the sixth.

While the Saco offense was producing regularly, Ben Ham, who replaced Kobe Gaudette to start the third, was keeping Hampden-Newburgh in check. Ham faced only one over the minimum in his first three innings.

“Our pitching is what brings us along,” said Shawn Gaudette, Kobe’s father.

“Kobe started today and he was strong but his arm was bothering him so we took him out. Ben came in and pulled it off. He’s getting stronger and stronger and I think he’s going to be a strong one for us going into the regionals.”

Hampden-Newburgh made some noise in its final at-bat as it scored twice to complete the scoring.

“The thing that I love about all these kids is they battle and they fight,” said Hampden-Newburgh manager McLean Poulin. “They don’t let anything get them down. In our district tournament we were down 10-0 and we battled back and won the game. These guys battle and battle and at this level that’s all you can ask for.”

— Contact Mark Jeanneret at 282-1535, Ext. 323.