The names were familiar, and all were etched in the history books from state tournaments gone by. Middleboro, Parkway National, Peabody Western, Westfield North: only once previously in the 50-plus year history of the Massachusetts state Little League tournament had each of the four sectional champions competing in the state tournament all previously claimed state championships.

That was in 1995, when Parkway National Little League edged Westfield South Little League, 5-4, with a sixth inning rally in the championship game. The win gave Parkway National what was then a record-tying fourth Bay State championship in the major baseball division, and the West Roxbury-based league added a fifth title just one year later. The league that looked like it came to play in a regular season jamboree -- Parkway National players have long worn their regular season uniforms during international tournament competition -- was the most decorated program in state tournament history.

When a similarly well-pedigreed group of leagues gathered at Joe Schwartz Field in Worcester for the 2008 state tournament, Parkway National simply added to its hardware collection.

Parkway National won three consecutive games, including a 3-1 championship game decision over Middleboro Little League, to claim the league's sixth-ever state championship. With the win, Parkway National advanced to the New England Region tournament in Bristol, Connecticut.

Parkway managed just two hits in the championship game, and scored each of its three runs on wild pitches. But the meager output was more than enough for left-hander Hector Diaz, who earned his second victory of the tournament by striking out eleven batters before exhausting his pitch count with one out in the sixth inning. Diaz surrendered a round-tripper to Thomas Homer in the sixth, and allowed one more baserunner before departing with one out. Reliever Danny Flahive walked a pair of batters to load the bases, but registered a pair of strikeouts to end the game.

"It was a nail-biter," Parkway National manager John Picarello said after the tournament. "Hector Diaz pitched really well. Flahive came on when the pressure was on him and he did it for the all-stars (like he had in the league's regular season)."

Parkway opened the scoring in the first inning, when leadoff hitter Sean Houlihan was hit by a pitch and scored following a series of wild pitches. The District 10 champions extended the lead in the fourth. Patrick Naughton walked, and a wild pitch followed by Jim Connolly's infield single put runners at the corners. Special pinch runner Brendan MacDonald moved to second on a first-and-third defensive indifference, and both runners then scored on pitches that went to the backstop.

"We didn't hit much," said Picarello. "But we played good defense."

Parkway National's hitting was more evident in their first meeting with Middleboro, when Picarello's team scored three runs in both the first and third innings of a 6-2 victory. Middleboro narrowed the lead with a pair of runs in the fifth, before Parkway sealed the win and advanced to the championship series.

"They are a very good team," said Middleboro manager Tim Harnett of the evental champions. "They have excellent pitching and hitting."

The pitching was particularly solid in the team's opening round game, when Diaz outdueled Peabody Western Little League pitcher Tyler Noe in a 3-2 extra inning win. Each pitcher allowed just one run before reaching their pitch count limits, and Parkway took the lead in the top of the eighth when Brian Forgione laced a leadoff home run over the center field fence. Naughton followed with a homer of his own, and though Peabody's Austin Batchelor responded with a solo shot leading off the bottom of the inning, Naughton recorded a pair of strikeouts and a game-ending groundout to preserve the win.

Peabody had scored in the first inning when Frank Lowry's bloop single plated Noe, but Diaz escaped a bases-loaded threat with two strikeouts and Houlihan tied the game with an RBI single in the second.

Noe retired ten of the next eleven hitters he faced after allowing the game-tying single, while Diaz struck out eleven and surrendered only two hits in 6-1/3 innings of work.

"You don't see very many leftys at this level, and especially not that good," said Peabody manager Dave Batchelor of the Parkway National pitcher.

Peabody, which won the state championship in 2006 and finished as the runner-up in 2007 to a Little League World Series-bound Walpole American Little League team, bounced back from the loss by eliminating Westfield North Little League, but watched Middleboro erase an early 4-1 deficit with nine unanswered runs to secure a the championship game berth opposite Parkway National.

"You have to be a little lucky sometimes, especially in a game like this," said Harnett, whose team first took the lead with a fourth inning rally in which seeing-eye and infield hits played a prominent role.

Pitcher Alex Bean extended the lead with a mammoth home run in the fifth inning, before Chris Eskholme and Alex Alliuth added RBI singles. Bean threw 45 pitches while struggling through the first two innings, but settled down and pitched into the sixth before Taylor Frazier closed out the win.

The next day, Parkway National extended its international tournament record to 10-0 with its second victory over Middleboro.

At the New England Region tournament, Parkway National split its four pool games before dropping a 5-2 decision against Manchester North (New Hampshire) Little League in the semifinal round.