ORRINGTON — There were two roads Biddeford’s 11-12 year old All- Stars could have taken to a state championship – the direct path or the long way around.

Scarborough made sure the Biddeford club would have to win the title the hard way.

Biddeford held a 6-4 lead after two innings of Tuesday’s winners’ bracket final, but the Scarborough All-Stars would explode for 15 runs in the third inning on their way to a 19-7 win.

With the loss, the Biddeford squad will now have to win three straight games in three days to win the state title. Biddeford manager Marcus Crowell had a simple message for his team after Tuesday’s loss.

“There is a lot of baseball to play and basically we told them, ‘we can do one of two things, we can fold or we can come back and try to play our best baseball and compete,’” said Crowell.

The Scarborough All-Stars showed they had big bats early on as Peter O’Brien led off the game with a home run to right centerfield.

Biddeford answered in the bottom of the first. Will Harriman reached on an error and Ashton Crowell blasted a shot through the shortstop to put runners on first and second. A grounder off the bat of Kyle Dion went through the legs of the Scarborough first basemen to score Harriman and Ashton Crowell would score on an RBI groundout from Will Goodwin to give Biddeford a 2-1 lead.

Scarborough responded in the top of the second as Ryan Gambardella singled and Ryan Kelly dropped in a bloop double to put runners on second and third. Gambardella scored on a fielders’ choice off the bat of Cade Sullivan and Kelly scored on an RBI single from O’Brien. Scarborough would add another run thanks to a Biddeford error.

Down 4-2 heading into the bottom of the second, once again Biddeford bounced back.

Kalvin Camire walked to start the rally and, after a strikeout, Mike Alvarez added a single to put two runners on for Ashton Crowell, who blasted a three-run homer to straightaway center.

Kyle Dion would follow the home run with a double and he scored on an RBI single from Goodwin to put Biddeford up 6-4 heading into the third.

From that point on it would be all Scarborough.

The big inning started with Sam Rumelhart smashing a line drive off Biddeford starting pitcher Ashton Crowell’s leg. It was the second time Crowell was hit with a hard line drive in the game, but Crowell would shake it off and stay in the game.

Reilly Martin followed with a single and Jack Simonton would draw a walk, which would be mean the end of Crowell’s day on the hill.

“We ended up pulling Ashton because he was at the 65 (pitch count) threshold,” said coach Crowell. “We would have went all the way with him, but he was a little off, he really wasn’t hitting his spots and they had gotten some hits off him, the last guy he pitched to had walked and he had also taken a couple balls back up the middle that hit him.”

Sean Gonneville came on in relief and would allow one run on a wild pitch before getting Nate Robinson to fly out, which brought home the tying run.

O’Brien continued his big day with an RBI double and, following a walk, Nic Frink would smash a three-run home run to left to give Scarborough a 10-6 lead.

Alvarez would take over on the mound for Biddeford and, after giving up a double to Sam Clark, he would get a pop out to first to record the second out of the inning.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, the third and final out would be extremely hard to come by.

Scarborough would go on to score nine runs with two outs, including a two-run double from Sullivan and a three-run home run from Clark, to take a 19-6 lead.

Two Biddeford errors after the second out was recorded would help Scarborough keep its big inning going.

“It’s a little disappointing when you’re in that position and you can’t get that one final out to get your team back in the dugout,” said coach Crowell.

The Biddeford coach was quick to give credit to the hard-hitting kids from Scarborough.

“You have to give credit to Scarborough for putting hits together and especially doing so with two outs to keep the inning extended,” said coach Crowell.

Biddeford would get one run back in the bottom of the fourth when Ashton Crowell doubled and scored on an RBI groundout from Goodwin, but it wouldn’t be enough to extend the game past the fourth.

Kaleb Janelle would add a pair of hits for the Tigers, who find themselves in a familiar situation.

“We were in this position in districts,” said Marcus Crowell. “We lost our second game of the tournament and it was a 2-1 ball game, which in my opinion, is a little more difficult to lose than a game like this, but we were able to respond, we won five games and I’m hoping we can do the same thing here.”

NOTES: Micah Ernest and Braeden Watson would also pitch for Biddeford in the third, while Camire tossed a scoreless fourth for the Tigers … Biddeford will face Lewiston, which beat Medomak Valley 9-3 on Tuesday, in the losers’ bracket final at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

— Sports Editor Pat McDonald can be reached at pmcdonald@journaltribune.com or at 282-1535 ext. 322. Follow the Journal Tribune Sports Department on Twitter @ JournalTsports.