With pitch count restrictions, rest requirements, and play-every-day tournament schedules to contend with while navigating the international tournament's waters, the conventional wisdom for all-star team managers is that avoiding the bottom bracket is of paramount importance for their team's prospects.

Yet as far as Bangor East Little League manager Jason Lewis is concerned, a loss was the best thing that happened to his team.

Bangor East won its opener at the state tournament before falling to Camden-Rockport Little League in the winner's bracket final. Undaunted, Lewis' team rebounded to win three games in as many days, including a 6-1 decision over Camden-Rockport, to win the Maine state tournament at Hampden-Newburgh Little League's VFW field. It marked the second consecutive year in which Bangor East emerged from the bottom bracket to win the Maine championship in the major baseball division.

"We needed that experience," said Lewis, whose team returned four players from a squad that won five in a row following an opening game loss in 2009. "We learned that we can't just walk on the field every game without being ready physically and mentally."

Pitcher Ryan Brookings made sure his team was ready, leading the way by throwing an 80-pitch complete game in the tournament's final contest. Brookings struck out eight, walked one, and surrendered just one hit against a team that had scored 18 runs in its first two meetings with Bangor East. Camden-Rockport's only hit was Kyle Cross' run-scoring single in the fifth inning.

"We weren't able to really make contact and get the hitting going like we had the rest of the tournament," said Camden-Rockport manager Barrett Brown. "In the earlier parts of the tournament, we were hitting the cover off the ball, but not today."

While Brookings stymied Camden-Rockport's offense, Bangor East rapped out ten hits and scored in four of its six offensive innings. Nick Moore helped to kick-start Bangor's offense with a run-scoring double in the first, and Liam Reading drove in a second run by hitting into a fielders' choice. The next inning, Brookings reached on a three-base error, and Moore drove him in with a single.

Camden-Rockport pulled one run back when Drew Holt reached and came around to score on a four-base throwing error in the third, but Bangor pulled away with Joey Moir's RBI triple in the fourth and Carson Atherly's run-scoring single that capped a two-run fifth.

Bangor East earned the win only after outlasting Camden-Rockport, 9-8, in the first championship series meeting. The game saw five lead changes overall, with Bangor overcoming 1-0 and 5-3 deficits and finally pulling ahead for good when Brookings drilled a two-run double in the bottom of the fifth inning to snap a 7-7 tie.

Moore's two-run homer helped to stake Bangor East to a 3-1 lead in the second inning, but Andrew Hall unleashed a monster 300-foot three-run home run in the fourth to give Camden-Rockport a 5-3 advantage. Bangor responded in the bottom of the inning, when Dane Johnson led off with a solo home run and Moore cleared the bases with a two-out, three-run double.

Camden tied the game in the fifth, when Jake Chamberlain and Ryan Pierce both tripled, before Bangor East moved ahead for good in the fifth. Reading opened the frame with a double and Tyler Mallory-McDonald walked before Brookings delivered the game-deciding double.

Camden-Rockport scored once in the sixth and advanced runners to second and third before Reading earned the save with a game-ending strikeout.

Camden-Rockport led from wire-to-wire in the teams' first meeting, earning a 10-5 victory that moved the District 2 champions into the state championship game for the second time in three years. Teddy Laurita, Jack Gallagher, and Kyle Crans all doubled in the first inning as Camden-Rockport opened a 3-0 advantage. The team extended the lead to 6-0 in the third when Laurita homered before Crans and Alex Forcillo drove in runs. Camden added four more runs in the sixth before Ben Crichton's two-run homer in the bottom of the frame helped Bangor to narrow the final margin.

Bangor East rebounded from the defeat by topping Cumberland-North Yarmouth, 10-3. Cumberland opened an early 2-0 advantage on solo home runs by Caleb Normandeau and Zac Novak, before Moore, Crichton, and Jake Ireland all homered with runners aboard as Bangor East scored eight runs in the game's final three innings.

Moore earned the win on the mound, scattering six hits over five innings and not allowing a run after the two early homers.

Bangor East won its initial contest at the New England Region tournament, topping Southborough (Massachusetts) Little League by a 6-4 score in the tournament's opening game. The Maine champions finished the tournament with a 1-3 record.