Maitland Little League had outscored its state tournament opponents by a 51-10 margin as Kyle Hamner stepped to the plate in the sixth inning of a deadlocked Florida state championship game.

Maitland's fifty-second run hurt the most -- but with the pain came tremendous gain.

Hamner was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to force in the winning run as Maitland edged North Springs Little League, 6-5, at the Larry Parrish Complex in Haines City.

The win, Maitland's fourteenth in a row since the start of the international tournament, brought the Orlando-area team its first-ever state championship. More importantly, it moved Maitland one step closer to its ultimate destination: the Little League World Series.

Maitland had rolled early in the state tournament, scoring twelve or more runs in three of its four games, but it was North Springs that jumped to a quick lead in the championship game. Patrick Kulick led off the game with a home run, and two batters later, Brandon Raaf dented the top of a sport utility vehicle parked beyond the outfield fence to give the Broward County team a quick 2-0 lead.

Maitland answered back quickly. Dante Bichette, in the midst of a Herculean 12-for-14, 20 RBI effort in Maitland's five state tournament games, launched a two-run home run over the left field fence in the bottom of the inning to tie the score.

"That team was so up," said Maitland manager Sid Cash of North Springs' early momentum. "(Bichette's home run) got it back even."

Maitland took the lead in the second when Max Moraff (2-for-4 in the game) collected an RBI and Bichette drove in a pair of runs, but North Springs responded with second inning hits by Kyle Pitts and Raaf that helped cut the Maitland advantage to 5-4. The Coral Springs-based league then tied the game in the fifth.

Maitland pushed across the winning run in the sixth when Moraff legged out an infield hit and eventually scored when Hamner was hit by a pitch.

Moraff earned the win, allowing only an unearned run over two hitless innings. Skip Kovar, playing with a broken thumb on his glove hand, struck out six batters over the first four innings for Maitland.

The previous day, Kovar's two-run home run in the first inning helped jump-start the Maitland offense in a 7-2 semifinal round victory over Lake Wales Little League. Lake Wales pulled one run back in the bottom of the first, but Maitland capitalized on a pair of errors and scored three times in the second inning.

The early offense was more than enough for Bichette, who struck out eight and scattered five hits in a complete game effort to earn his second victory of the tournament. Bichette helped himself by driving in three runs in the win, while Moraff was 3-for-4 and Kovar added a pair of hits.

Maitland and North Springs both reached the semifinal round by sweeping their respective pools at the state tournament. Maitland broke open a tight game late in their opener, scoring six runs in the fifth inning and seven more in the sixth to down Destin Little League, 15-0. Bichette and Hamner, Maitland's pitcher and catcher in the game, combined for six hits, three runs scored, and nine runs batted in. Kovar and Tanner Stanley each added a pair of hits, as Maitland rapped out fourteen hits as a team and capitalized on ten walks issued by Destin pitchers.

The next day, Bichette's second inning homer gave his team an early lead, and Kover fired a one-hitter as Maitland topped Jacksonville's Navy Ortega Lakeshore Little League, 5-1. Kovar struck out eight and walked only one batter while taking a shutout into the sixth inning. Maitland again clinched the win with a big inning -- in this case, a four run rally in the fifth inning that extended a 1-0 lead. Hamner and Michael Tomlinson delivered RBIs to help key the inning.

Maitland closed pool competition with a 19-2 rout of Palm Harbor Little League. The District 24 champions jumped to a 4-0 lead after two innings, and again buried their opponent late in the game: a 14-run tally in the fifth inning involked the mercy rule. Bichette hit a pair of round-trippers, while Kovar, Stanley, and Chris Miller also homered for Maitland.

Maitland's first-ever state tournament appearance was shepherded by a coaching staff with a unique pedigree: Cash brought 30 years of experience as a Little League manager, while his coaches all had extensive baseball experience. Dante Bichette and Mike Stanley had the higher profiles, thanks to a combined 29 years of major leagues experience and a collective five all-star game appearances. Daniel Moraff, Max's father, played in the New York Yankees' farm system while Rick Richardi, whose son Trent was an outfielder for Maitland, was a member of Miami University's College World Series qualifier in 1985.

North Springs brought extensive experience of a different kind, having reached the state tournament semifinals in 2002 and finished as the Florida runner-up in both 2000 and 2004. After outscoring seven District 10 and Section 8 opponents by a 74-12 margin, North Springs had just enough to hold off Lake Wales, 3-2, in their state tournament opener. The Coral Springs club built a 3-0 lead when Brandon D'Aquino doubled and scored in the second inning and then delivered an RBI single in the third, but Lake Wales rallied for a pair of runs in the fifth before North Springs closed out the win. Left-hander Ryan Morse threw four hitless innings for North Springs before a pair of walks keyed Lake Wales' fifth inning rally.

North Springs was the hitless team for most of their next pool game, but the District 10 champions eventually managed to pull away for an 11-1 win over Port St. Lucie American Little League. North Springs, which carried a 3-1 lead through five innings, finally recorded its first hits of the game in the sixth inning, when four post-rain delay safeties keyed an eight-run outburst that cemented the win.

"We put the ball in play and did all the little things," said North Springs manager Jay Pitts of his team's early lead. North Springs struck out only twice as a team through the game's first four innings.

"Sometimes you don't get the hits, but make things happen in other ways," he added.

North Springs' offense was more prominently displayed in the team's next two wins, a 10-6 victory over South Fort Myers Little League and a 12-2 semifinal round decision over Navy Ortega Lakeshore. But the team's 11-game winning streak came to an end in the championship game. North Springs' all-star teams compiled a 21-2 record over the course of its state tournament runner-up finishes in 2004 and 2005.

Maitland, meanwhile, continued its tournament run with the championship game win.

"This is a special group of kids, a special time for everyone," said Cash as his team prepared for the region tournament.

The special team's special summer was extended for nearly a month. Maitland edged Buckhead Little League (Atlanta, Georgia), 3-1, in the Southeastern Region championship game in Gulfport, Florida, to earn a trip to South Williamsport. Maitland won two of its three pool games before falling, 6-2, to West Region champion Rancho Buena Vista Little League (Vista, Southern California) in the Little League World Series quarterfinals.