Westbrook Little League held its Opening Day ceremonies on Saturday, and among those in attendance were a group of guys who’ll go down in local, even state history – namely, the majority of the 2005 team who advanced all the way to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa.

And while the team didn’t bring home the championship, they perhaps brought home something more valuable still: memories, for themselves and their city.

“I’ve been coaching Little League baseball for 35 years,” says Rick Knight, who managed the then-boys on their spectacular run, “and this was the most talented team I ever coached. They also played very well together as a team, with the right kind of chemistry for success.”

Only seven of the original 12 members of the team could make it to Saturday’s celebrations: Jake Gardiner (1B, a member of Westbrook Little League’s Sappi team); Zack Gardiner (SS, Sappi); Mitchell Chipman (3B/CF, Tickets); Nick Finocchairo (C/P, Phoenix Welding); Sean Murphy (P/LF, Tickets); Reid Coulombe (LF, Coastal); and Michael Boothby (3B, Eagles).

No doubt their absent brothers would’ve attended had they been able to. Jared Martin (CF, Lions); Joey Royer (P/LF, Lions); Zach Collett (2B/3B, Dairy Queen); Tommy Lemay (C/2B, Tickets); and Michael Mowatt (RF, Kiwanis) were all kept away by present responsibilities, including college and the military.

At least the team was reunited in spirit – although, maybe in spirit they’re never apart. To hear the players tell it, distance and time away from one another don’t sever their bond. But isn’t that what deep friendship means?

“It’s something that changed my life forever. I’m never going to forget about it, and these guys are some of my best friends, even if I don’t talk to them every day,” says Finocchiaro, now a graduate of University of Massachusetts at Lowell, where he majored in computer science and minored in robotics.

“Some of them I haven’t seen in a few years, but coming back like this, it feels like I saw them yesterday,” says Finocchiaro, who lives in Boston and works in Cambridge as a software engineer. “I couldn’t ask for a better group of guys to spend my 10-year-old to 17-year-old years with.”

Among the memories Finocchiaro brought back from Pennsylvania is his killer first ups: “I hit a home run, my first at-bat in the Little League World Series, and on my mom’s birthday, against Louisiana. The first pitch, I think I had swung and fouled it off straight back, and I was going up there hacking.

“Next pitch, I hit foul, and I think I hit it further than the ball I hit out. Then they threw me a curveball and I just put it out in left field. I couldn’t believe it. I watch the video from time to time; I flipped the bat a little bit and I was running the bases like it wasn’t even going out.”

Coulombe, currently enrolled at University of Rhode Island where he studies kinesiology with a speciality in health fitness, remembers something different about Finocchairo hitting that homer.

“I’ll never forget Nick tripping around third base. He hit a home run, and all of a sudden, you just kind of see him stumble around the bag,” he says, chuckling.

But Coulombe, who returns to Westbrook when not at school, also retains a general sense of that idyllic summer, of how it felt to live through those weeks.

“It was literally three-plus weeks with my best friends in the world. Twelve years old, playing baseball all summer; it was all we could ask for.”

Murphy echoes Coulombe’s sentiments.

“Just being around the guys, and having fun,” he says. “Winning and not paying attention to what day it was during the summer. I had no idea. That was kind of a thing. You just woke up and went and played baseball. It was great.”

Murphy had Tommy John surgery straight out of high school, didn’t fully recover his arm, and lost a scholarship to play in New York City. He opted to attend University of Southern Maine instead, where he did play; he’s now living in Westbrook and attending Southern Maine Community College, but transferring to University of Maine at Farmington next year.

He also fondly recalls the sheer size of the crowd – and what Westbrook was able to do to them.

“It was just a great experience, playing in front of people,”he said.

One game of that experience, the Connecticut game, proved to be a thrilling, David-versus-Goliath upset.

“Our biggest win was against Connecticut,” Murphy says, “and their home crowd was probably 15,000 people, and we probably had 300 there for us. It was exhilarating. And the fact that they had beat us, the first game of regionals, they kind of overlooked us, coming into that game. It was awesome. Silencing that type of crowd as a 12-year-old was pretty cool.”

Westbrook trumped Connecticut that Regionals matchup, 6-4, after falling to them 5-0 earlier. The team then defeated Rhode Island 7-2 to advance to the World Series itself, where they played three games, against Louisiana (a 3-2 loss), California (a 7-3 loss) and Kentucky (a 3-2 win).

Life steals forward, of course; Finocchiaro observes as much: “Now we’re out in college. It’s wild. Everybody’s talking about growing up, getting jobs.”

Still, many of the guys are still involved in baseball in some form. Royer and Collett both play college ball for the University of Connecticut at New Haven, for instance.

Likewise, Murphy coaches now – eighth grade – as does Coulombe, who spent the last two years as junior Legion coach for Deering. His brother coaches as well, and they want to move forward in that leadership capacity together.

So the past informs the present, as the now-young-men know.

“To say we’re one of the few teams from Maine to ever make it, that means a lot to me,” Coulombe says. “Baseball is still a big part of my life, so this is a big highlight of that dream.”

“It was a tremendous experience for all of us,” says Knight. “We were treated like kings at both the Regionals and the [World Series]. On national TV for four games; interviews, TV shots and constant requests for autographs. My team handled all the publicity very well, as they were always cordial and thankful, even if they were tired.

“They represented the state of Maine very well.”

Sean Murphy, a member of the 2005 team from Westbrook that took part in the 2005 Little League World Series, accepts a ball cap commemorating the 10-year anniversary.Members of the 2005 World Series Little League team from Westbrook listen while their tale is told to the crowd at the city’s 2015 Little League opening day ceremonies on Saturday. From left are Zack Gardiner, Mitchell Chipman, Jake Gardiner, Nick Finocchiaro, Sean Murphy, Reid Coulombe and Michael Boothby.