By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer 

BRISTOL, Conn. --- In his first two plate appearances of the New England Regional Tournament, Alec Cronan saw just two pitches.
Those two pitches proved to be too many for Maine’s Bangor East.
Cronan’s two swings produced two home runs and six RBIs and lifted the Lincoln All-Stars to a 14-3 rout of Bangor in Friday’s opening-round game at Breen Field. The 12-year-old Cronan’s most lethal shot occurred in the top of the third inning when he bashed a grand slam,  part of a six-run frame to essentially seal the deal for the Rhode Island state champions in the five-inning, mercy-ruled contest.

“I have been on top of my game lately, and in practice I thought it was going really, really well,” Cronan said. “I didn’t really have a doubt that I could hit the ball.”
Lincoln finished the afternoon with eight hits. That was plenty enough as Lincoln did most of its damage on Friday with extra-base hits. Besides Cronan’s two dingers, Brian Janetti and Jake Petrin each hit solo homers and Brandon Yee belted a three-run triple.
Lincoln’s offense didn’t miss a beat from its successful run through the R.I. portion of the All-Star Tournament where it averaged more than 11 runs a game.
“That‘s our thing,” Lincoln manager Dale O’Dell said. “We hit the ball. Alec Cronan had a huge game. Alec can be instant offense - two pitches, six RBIs, that’s using the bat (effectively). He didn’t give much away.”
With its four homers, Lincoln now has 32 in its dozen tourney games this summer.
“We have hit a lot of home runs and have done a lot of good things at the plate,” said Lincoln’s starting pitcher Jeff Sheehan.
Bangor East, which went into the contest with a similar 10-1 record like its rival during its district and state tournaments,  finished the day with just five hits off Lincoln’s pitching. Sheehan took the bulk of that load, striking out six and yielding four hits in 4 2/3 innings of work.
“It wasn’t my best stuff,” said Sheehan, who has been resting a tired arm for most of the past week. “But I pitched good enough to win.”
Making its sixth appearance in the regionals since 1999, Lincoln didn’t display much nerves in the high-pressured game. It was perfect on the defensive end and, if not for a three-hit, two-RBI effort from Liam Harrigan, pretty much shut down the rest of Bangor’s lineup in the shortened tilt.
After both teams went down in order in the first inning, Lincoln was able to get on the scoreboard in the second when Cronan went yard for the first time. Tyler Duquette led off the frame by reaching first base when Harrigan dropped a throw by shortstop Andrew Hiller on Duquette’s infield grounder. Cronan followed that miscue with a two-run homer that cleared the left centerfield fence by 25 feet.
“I wasn’t that nervous at the beginning,” Cronan admitted. “I did get nervous later on in the game, though.”
Those nerves certainly were not evident in his next time at bat. Lincoln had its first five batters reach base in the third inning with Sam Brito driving in a run with a single and then Cronan clearing the bases with his grand slam over the right field fence.
The offense wasn’t done quite yet. With two outs Janetti, who was inserted into the No. 8 spot in the frame, hit his solo shot to give Lincoln a comfortable 8-0 cushion.
“That was probably the highlight of the game for me,” O’Dell said. “Brian Janetti is one of those kids - he’s not a superstar but he comes to practice everyday. He’ll do anything you want.  That was a team home run. That’s what makes you feel good about Little League baseball. I think I was more excited when he hit that home run then any other run in that game. It makes you feel good.”
Bangor would score all its runs in the bottom of the third in Sheehan’s toughest inning. Eight players made their way to the batter’s box with Harrigan clouting a two-run double, his second two bagger of the game, and Courtney bring another runner across the plate with a base hit.
Any thoughts of a comeback for the Maine squad was quickly extinguished in the fourth as Lincoln scored four more runs, including Yee’s three-run triple that bounced off the centerfield fence.
Lincoln finalized the romp in the fifth with a leadoff homer by Petrin and a run-scoring single from Brito.
“Obviously we got a long way to go, but it was good to get that first one out of their system,” said Lincoln coach Brian Sheehan. “It was a big confidence booster. Being in the (dorm) room the last (night) you could see it in the kid’s faces that they were a little uptight, a little nervous.”
Lincoln will now take a much-deserved day off from competition in pool play and then will bring its high-powered offense back to the diamond on Sunday afternoon when it takes on Massachusetts’s Peabody Western in a 2 o’clock encounter at Breen Field, which is inside the confines of the A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center.
Peabody Western will face Bangor on Saturday in its opener of the tourney.
“I heard they‘re a good team,” O‘Dell said. “We’ll take a look at them tomorrow. That’s kind of when I’ll determine who I’m going to pitch in that game. I haven’t really decided.”