People gather at Loring Baseball Field to watch Portland Little League play Salem, NH in the New England Regional championship game. On the monitor, Demetrius Brown-Phillips warms up after being assigned to pitch. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

The Portland Little League All-Stars’ run in the New England Region tournament ended Thursday with a 2-0 loss to Salem, New Hampshire, in the championship game in Bristol, Connecticut.

Annie Leahy of Portland cheers at Loring Baseball Field while watching the Portland Little League New England Region championship game against Salem, NH on Thursday. Derek Davis/Staff Photographer

With the win, Salem clinched a spot in the Little League World Series, which begins next week in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Portland defeated Salem 2-0 in the tournament’s opening game. Salem beat Burlington, Vermont, and Bridgewater, Massachusetts, in elimination games to reach Thursday’s championship.

Portland couldn’t beat Salem’s starting pitcher Colton Johnson, who led the game with three hits and seven strikeouts. Only one Portland baserunner managed to get past first base: Finn Day, who opened the bottom of the sixth inning with a bunt single.

Salem took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Zach Bolduc scored on a perfectly executed safety squeeze bunt by Patrick DeFrancesco. As soon as Maine pitcher David King made his throw to first base to put DeFrancesco out, Bolduc ran to home base and scored easily.

Salem scored another run in the fourth inning. Grayson Buckley led off with a double and scored on Jackson Lemire’s RBI single.

Eli Peltier and Demetrius Brown-Phillips had base hits for Portland alongside Day.

Portland was trying to become the fifth Maine team to advance to the Little League World Series, and it would have been the second in a row after Gray-New Gloucester accomplished the feat last summer. The other Maine teams to make it to Williamsport were Suburban (1951), Augusta (1971) and Westbrook (2005).

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