By STEVE MAZZONE

Sports writer

BRISTOL, Conn. — Staring at a large deficit after just half an inning might faze most teams.
Not the Lincoln Little League All-Stars. Not that it ever did.
Trailing by four runs before making its first plate appearance, Lincoln’s high-powered offense went to work on Wednesday afternoon, resulting in a 7-4 victory over Portsmouth, N.H., in the New England Eastern Regional Tournament at Breen Field.
Lincoln scored twice in the first inning and then took the lead for good in the second, highlighted by a three-run homer from Alec Cronan. With the win, Lincoln finished up pool play with a 3-1 record. More importantly the locals secured the No. 2 seed in the four-team playoff.
Even though it has just one loss — a 10-8 setback to Massachusetts’s Peabody Western on Sunday — a semifinal berth was still up in the air for Lincoln on Wednesday. Peabody Western was the only unbeaten squad in the six-team field with four other teams having the potential to be in the mix.
“I didn’t tell these guys much,” Lincoln manager Dale O’Dell said. “The bottom line was to get in we had to give up less than nine runs. When they came out with four runs on us, the biggest thing I was worried about was getting hit.”
With its lethal bats that had averaged more than 10 runs in its previous three games of the regionals, Lincoln took care of the offense, finishing with eight hits, highlighted by homers from Cronan and Jake Petrin.
Summoned to the mound for a long relief effort after starter Chris Leclaire allowed four runs in the opening inning, Jeff Sheehan did his part in ousting the defending New England champions (1-3) from the tourney with a dominating effort. In five innings of work, Sheehan stymied Portsmouth’s offense, yielding just four hits while striking out 10.
“I tried to save him (for the playoffs),” O’Dell admitted. “Every time you try to save someone it always comes back to bite you. It came back to bite me today, but Sheehan gave them nothing after (the first). He had command. He had a good fastball. He had a biting curveball that he used a lot with two strikes to get some strikeouts, and we mixed it up. They’re a good hitting team, so you got to be on your game or they‘re going to make you pay. Jeff was just a little better today.”
Sheehan, the winning pitcher in Lincoln’s opening 14-3 rout of Maine’s Bangor East on Friday, knew what he had to do to stop the bleeding.
“I had to throw strikes,” he said. “That’s always been my problem in the past (that) I can’t throw strikes sometimes. I had no walks today. It helped me out a lot.”
In a must-win situation, Portsmouth got off to an encouraging start against the right-handed Leclaire. Struggling with his control, Leclaire gave up a leadoff single to Jake Becker on his very first pitch, followed by back-to-back walks to Charlie Lehoux and Mike Toar. With the bases-loaded and no outs, Riley gave his teammates a 4-0 advantage with a grand slam homer over the right-field fence.
Like its done throughout most of the summer, Lincoln did not let the deficit affect its mindset too much.
Facing the 6-foot-2 Riley, Portsmouth’s starting pitcher, Lincoln responded with two runs of its own in the bottom half of the frame. After the tall righty was able to strike out Petrin in the leadoff spot, Lincoln strung together five straight hits. Sheehan got the offense cookin’ with a line drive single that Portsmouth shortstop Mike Crooke couldn’t scoop up with his glove. Sam Brito followed with another base hit, smacking a high pop-up to short left field that dropped between Crooke and left-fielder Loden Formichelli. The two runners advanced on a wild pitch and then Cronan got Lincoln on the board with an RBI single. Tyler Duquette made it 4-2 with another run-scoring single.
After Riley got the first two batters out in the bottom of the second, Lincoln scored all the runs it would need with its next three batters. With his 10th straight hit in the tourney, Sheehan connected on another base hit. Brito followed with a walk. Cronan then came through with the decisive shot, driving his teammates home with his homer over the right-field fence.
“I knew we were going to hit the ball,” O‘Dell said. “We always hit the ball. We hit the ball in our sleep. I knew we were going to score some runs eventually on a very tough pitcher.
“He’s been used quite a few times (in the tournament). I think he just ran out of a little gas.”
In four games at Bristol‘s A. Bartlett Giamatti Little League Leadership Training Center, Cronan has 13 RBI for Lincoln. His deep drive against Portsmouth was his second of the tourney.
“I was just trying to hit the ball,” Cronan said. “I just extended my arms out and hit it.”
Making his third appearance in the regionals, Riley, who was fresh off 1 1/3 innings of relief in Portsmouth’s 7-4 loss to Peabody Western on Tuesday, did settle down in the contest..
With Sheehan taking command after the first inning, it didn’t seem to matter, though.  The 12-year-old hurler got stronger as the game progressed. Eight of his final nine outs came via the strikeout.
“The last few innings we had the lead so I felt a little more comfortable throwing pitches that were down the middle, throwing hanging curveballs,” Sheehan said.
After an 0-for-3 effort in Lincoln’s last win - a 9-1 verdict over Vermont’s Brattleboro Little League on Monday - Petrin put the final dagger in the outcome with a two-run homer in the fourth.
“I was not hitting the ball very well,” said the Lincoln catcher. “I felt I had to go up there and make contact. I got my pitch and I drove it how I was taught.”
Lincoln now prepares for its semifinal contest with No. 3 seed Vermont (2-2) on Friday at 5 p.m., in its second straight game televised by NESN. Top-seeded Peabody Western, a 13-7 winner over Glastonbury Little League, faces the fourth-seeded Connecticut squad again tonight at 5:30 in the other semifinal contest.
“I’ve seen Massachusetts, they’re a real good team,” O’Dell said. “I haven’t seen Connecticut yet, we had a bye with them. We watched them play a few times. Vermont’s in and we played them already. The only team we haven’t played yet is Connecticut and they’re a scrappy team. They don’t give up. We just have to play the game on the field.”
The championship game is set for Saturday at 2 p.m.