By their impressive standards, the Andover National Little League offense was long overdue for a longball. Andover had homered 19 times in four sectional tournament victories, and cleared the fences an additional 11 times through the three games leading up to the Massachusetts state championship game.

But the title game was well into its fourth inning, and Andover had just one home run in the books -- a second inning blast by pitcher Cedric Gillette -- and the District 14 champions found themselves trailing a potent Braintree American Little League all-star team midway through the game with outs becoming short and the bottom of their batting order coming due.

But Dan Gemmell was ready to put Andover back on track.

Gemmell clubbed a grand slam beyond the center field fence to catapult Andover from a 3-2 deficit into a 6-3 advantage, and the Nationals then held on for a 7-6 victory to win their second-ever state championship and advance to the New England Region tournament.

"Danny has been seeing a steady diet of off-speed stuff," said Andover manager Paul Finn after the game. "He got ahead in the count, and he got a fastball."

The blast capped a five-run Andover rally, and after Andrew Selima added a solo shot in the fifth inning, Gillette and Selima combined to fend off a sixth inning Braintree push.

Gillette pitched into the sixth inning and brought Andover to within an out of the win before reaching his pitch count limit, and Selima surrendered a massive three-run homer by Braintree pitcher Michael Reilly that sliced Andover's lead to a single run before calmly recording a game-ending strikeout.

"It was a great game," said Braintree American manager Steve Guilbault. "I am extremely proud of our kids and how they never gave up until the final out. It's the way you want it."

Even as Braintree narrowed Andover's lead, Finn was confident in his team's ability to close out the win.

"I said it was no big deal," explained Finn, who visited Selima on the mound after Reilly's tape measure blast as Andover pushed to close out the win. "I told him to just focus on the hitter. We were in great shape still, and just relax. He was not upset in the least. He threw that kid a great pitch. Reilly hit a low fastball away, and that was just a great piece of hitting. And he got all of it. I think someone with a little less composure might have gotten rattled. Not Andrew Selima."

Gillette struck out seven before turning the game over to Selima, and Braintree left-hander Michael Reilly struck out nine and kept Andover in check for much of the game despite allowing three home runs.

"They are a very good team and are very well-managed," noted Guilbault of his team's title game opponents. "Michael Reilly has been our best pitcher for two years. They hit him. There haven't been three home runs hit off of him all summer, so they can hit the baseball... I think they'll do very well in Bristol."

Andover National's path to Bristol included 15 wins in 16 games against Massachusetts opponents, and ten games in which the District 14 champions scored in double-digits. Andover overwhelmed four sectional tournament opponents by a 62-15 margin, then earned victories in each of their four state tournament games.

Andover opened the state tournament with a 9-7 victory over Wellesley South Little League. The Nationals trailed Wellesley 5-1 in the fourth inning, but posted an eight run rally that sealed the victory. Selima homered twice in the game, with his first shot opening the scoring in the first inning and his second capping the fourth inning rally. Sam Conte's two-run blast helped Andover to narrow Wellesley's lead to a single run in the fourth, then Nate O'Neill's three-run homer gave Andover the lead before Selima furthered the rally with his second homer of the game.

The next day, Andover jumped to a 3-0 lead before Braintree American came to bat, and dispatched the District 8 champions by an 8-2 score. Seven different players contributed hits for Andover, and four pitchers combined to scatter five hits.

"All of our guys did a good job pitching," said Finn, who used Selima, Conte, Tom Kalantzakos, and Daniel Walsh on the mound in the win. "To give up two runs against (Braintree), we pitched very, very well."

Despite the 2-0 start, Andover didn't clinch its championship game berth until registering a 12-2 victory over Worcester's Joe Schwartz Little League on the final day of round-robin competition. Andover scored multiple runs in five of the game's six innings. Conte set the pace with a two-out, two-run homer in the top of the first inning, the first of six home runs by the eventual champions in the game.

"That was huge," said Finn. "We got a lead, and we have a great pitcher on the mound."

Andover pitcher Michael Reilly threw a 69-pitch complete game, striking out four and scattering five hits while allowing Finn to deploy the rest of his pitching staff for the championship game.

Walsh added a two-run homer as Andover extended its lead in the second, then Reilly and Gillette homered in the fifth before Conte and Gillette each hit their second homers of the game in the sixth.

"I'll tell you what, that's one heck of a good hitting team," remarked Joe Schwartz manager Pat Gallagher. "That's a great offensive team. It's a good baseball team. What else can you say?"

Braintree earned the tournament's other championship game berth by sandwiching a pair of victories around the loss to Andover. Braintree topped Joe Schwartz, 5-2, on the tournament's opening day, taking advantage of the 85-pitch limit by scoring all of its runs in the fifth after Schwartz pitcher Pat Gallagher had struck out eleven and allowed only two hits in 4-2/3 innings of work. Chris Joyce homered on the first pitch thrown by a Joe Schwartz reliever to tie the game, and Jack Andrews followed later in the inning with a three-run homer that gave Braintree the win.

After dropping its second game to Andover, Braintree closed round robin play with a 6-4 victory over Wellesley South. Braintree pitcher Joe Vannelli threw five shutout innings and Braintree methodically built a 6-0 advantage before Wellesley began to close the gap in the sixth. When Wellesley brought the tying run to the plate, Guilbault called on Mike Reilly, who registered a pair of strikeouts and lifted Braintree into the state championship game.

Andover National split its four pool games in the New England Region tournament, then avenged one of its defeats with a 9-4 victory over Goffstown Junior Baseball Little League (New Hampshire) in the semifinal round. In the championship game, Andover National fell to Rhode Island's Cumberland American Little League by a 13-7 score.