After an electrical storm plunged much of Bristol, Connecticut into darkness and forced postponement of the New England Region championship game, the Lincoln (Rhode Island) Little League all-star team returned the next morning with a simple solution.

They brought their own power.

Chris Pickering hit a pair of solo home runs and eleven-year-old Kevin Dawber added a three-run shot as Lincoln defeated South Burlington (Vermont) 6-3 at the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center in Bristol. Lincoln, which was appearing in the region tournament for the third consecutive year, earned its first ever trip to the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

"It's easy to coach when the ball is flying over the fence," observed Rhode Island coach Lou Abraham. "Chris (Pickering) had a big day for us and I can't say enough about Matt (Carpentier) or the rest of the team."

Carpentier's lights-out pitching performance kept the Vermont offense in check. The right-hander tossed a complete game, striking out eight and holding South Burlington to four hits. He registered a critical inning-ending strikeout in the bottom of the fifth that stranded a South Burlington baserunner at third base while preserving a 5-3 lead, then shut down the South Burlington offense once more in the sixth to send Lincoln to Williamsport.

Lincoln built their early lead in the third. Pickering led off the inning with a homer over the center field fence, and a single, hit batsman, and error then loaded the bases. Chris Randall's sacrifice fly drove in the inning's second run before Dawber slammed a three-run homer over the center field fence.

South Burlington scored twice in the bottom of the inning on Brandon Fay's fielder's choice grounder and third baseman Robert Griffin's sacrifice bunt, but the Vermont champions left runners in scoring position in the fourth and fifth before Pickering's second homer iced the win in the sixth.

"(Matt) pitched the game of his life," Abraham said of Carpentier. "Vermont had a lot of confidence after beating Connecticut. His location was excellent, and he carried us for five innings and gave us time to get some runs."

Vermont's 3-0 semifinal round win over powerful Yalesville, the Connecticut champion, was the upset of the tournament. Yalesville stormed to four consecutive wins in the pool phase of the tournament, including a 6-1 dismantling of eventual champion Lincoln on the tournament's opening day. But Casey Harman fired a five-hitter and worked out of a pair of bases-loaded, one-out jams as South Burlington surprised the local favorites to advance to the championship game.

South Burlington carried an 0-3 record into the final day of the pool phase of the tournament, and needed both a win and help from Yalesville just to reach the semifinal round. Mowczan led the Vermont squad to its first victory with a one-hitter in South Burlington's 10-0 win over Maine -- the zero turned out to be much more important than the ten -- and the Vermont team's hopes were realized when Yalesville overcame a 6-1 deficit to defeat Manchester South (New Hampshire) 9-7.

The high scoring contest lifted South Burlington above New Hampshire and into the final semifinal round slot based on Little League's tiebreaking rules (fewest runs allowed per defensive inning played). South Burlington then rewarded Yalesville for their help by ousting the locals from the tournament.

Lincoln, meanwhile, rebounded from their opening day loss to finish pool competition with a 3-1 record, and then edged Pittsfield South (Massachusetts) 5-4 in a tense extra inning semifinal round matchup. Randall roped a three-run homer to right field in the top of the first to give Lincoln an early lead, but Pittsfield countered with Steve DeMastrie's opposite field round-tripper in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 3-2.

Randall added a two-out RBI single in the second, but after his hit Pittsfield ace Jeff Fields bore down and retired the next fifteen batters he faced. Pittsfield added a run in the second and tied it in the fifth, but Lincoln went ahead for good with a two-out rally in the seventh. Tom Coulombe singled and wheeled around with the lead run when Jonathan McNaught lined a two-strike triple off the base of the right field fence. Coulombe's hook slide barely eluded the sweeping tag of the Pittsfield catcher, and gave Lincoln the edge it needed, as Coulombe closed out the victory in relief on the mound by inducing a game-ending groundout that stranded the tying run at third base.

"We got off to real good start, but Pittsfield just wouldn't go away -- they made us work for everything," Abraham said. "We finally got the clutch hit when we needed it, but their pitcher was just masterful after the first two innings. He allowed his team to get back in it, and I can't credit him enough."

Lincoln followed the win over Pittsfield South with their early-morning power show in the title game, but not before having to wait one more night to realize their goal. The Rhode Island league had reached the Eastern Region semifinals in 1999 and quarterfinals in 2000 before finally punching their ticket to Williamsport.

"We've dreamed about this for so long; it's still shocking," said Abraham after the championship game.

For one night, at least, the Ocean State was more appropriately known as the Land of Lincoln.