“WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – By today, Bainbridge Island’s Little League All-Stars will be flying high – or flying home.The team was in the thick of a complicated tiebreaker scenario heading into Tuesday afternoon’s game against Rolando Paulino of The Bronx, N.Y., its third and final pool-play contest at the Little League World Series in this central Pennsylvania city.Bainbridge, with a 1-1 record, sought to be one of two teams in its four-member pool to advance to single-elimination semifinal play beginning today. To do so, the team had to beat the undefeated Bronx squad, and get some help later that day from Davenport, Iowa, which faced Apopka, Fla. in a 4 p.m. PST contest.We’ve come back after every loss, and I expect to this game, Bainbridge Manager Don French said Sunday. There’s no give-up in these guys.Bainbridge Island is definitely in to win, as player Robby Stevenson said after the All-Stars won their Northwest championship game in San Bernardino to advance to the week-long event in Pennsylvania featuring the world’s top 16 teams. But the team that had never come close to winning a state tournament is also very happy just to have made it.Opening winSealing that contentment was the realization that Bainbridge belonged among the best with Saturday’s win over Davenport, the Midwest champion and U.S. runner-up last year.The teams traded zeros for two innings behind standout pitching from Bainbridge’s Nash Hensen and Davenport’s Chris Kolar. The All-Stars broke through in the top of the third, as Peter Leslie led off with a walk, moved to second on a Stevenson bunt and, after Coby Gibler walked, scored on a slashing double down the right-field line of 5,000-seat Volunteer Stadium.Peter Huisinga followed with a fielder’s choice groundout to plate Gibler. Then Jesse Colkitt, mired in a slump, blasted a double to left-center to score pinch-runner Dalton Gent and give Bainbridge a 3-0 lead.Kolar got the Midwest champs back to within two on a home run in the bottom of the fourth, but Hensen – who struck out nine in his 5-2/3 innings of work – got two strikeouts to shut off any further long ball ideas.Davenport wasn’t going to roll over, however, as it demonstrated in a sixth inning that sealed in stone the saying It ain’t over till it’s over.Hensen got Ben Early and Shane White on strikeouts – giving him nine for the game – and took Kolar to a 1-2 count before the opposing pitcher reached down and outside for a curveball and chinked it into shallow right for a single. Willie Argo followed with a base hit to center, and Tim O’Donnell brought in Kolar with another single to right to cut Bainbridge’s lead to 3-2.French sent in Stevenson to relieve Hensen. But Stevenson, who looked lost at the plate in going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, continued to wobble, firing a low curveball to the next batter that proved too hot for backup catcher Adam Beck to handle. Kolar raced in from third just a step ahead of Beck’s throw to Stevenson, and suddenly, from being one strike away from victory, a Bainbridge win was in doubt with the winning run on second. But Stevenson fanned the batter to send the game into extra innings.Re-enter Gibler.The bulky first baseman, who had hit three home runs in the Western Regional tournament in San Bernardino, Calif., was simply looking to hit a line drive as he led off the seventh inning. At that, he failed. Instead, he hit a high, lazy-looking fly ball that had just enough oomph to clear the wall to the right of the 205-foot sign in dead center field.Bainbridge’s fan contingent, some 100 strong, went 1964 Beatles as Gibler rounded the bases and stepped on home plate to give his team a 4-3 advantage.Gibler was then called on to hold his own lead in the bottom of the seventh, with manager Don French wanting to preserve Stevenson’s eligibility to pitch Game 2 on Sunday. The righthander did so in style, getting a first-pitch groundout and two strikeouts to seal Bainbridge’s moment of Series immortality.Needed: hitsFrench said the key to building on Bainbridge’s first win was to avoid leaving runners in scoring position with two outs – something the team did five times Saturday. Colkitt accurately pegged the key to the game on Saturday afternoon: I think we can do better – but we have to hit a lot more. But on Sunday’s game against Apopka, Fla., the team never got the chance to execute in such situations. It was not so much a crashing to earth as it was a frustrating fluttering.Apopka’s Justin LaFavers wasn’t the toughest curveball pitcher the All-Stars had faced. But, aided by a wide strike zone and abetted by lunging Bainbridge swings that widened the zone further, he came within a strike of pitching a no-hitter.LaFavers struck out 10 Bainbridge batters in the first five innings and didn’t allow a ball out of the infield. He’d gotten the first two outs of the sixth before Bainbridge showed a glimpse of the two-out magic.Leslie went to a 1-2 count against the dovetailing hurler, but reached down on the next curveball and clinked a low looping fly ball into shallow center. Apopka’s Andrew Cobb appeared to have made a diving catch, but the ball squirted away from his glove as he sprawled over, and the officials gave Leslie a base hit.That set the stage for Stevenson, who had drawn a first-inning walk to become Bainbridge’s only other base runner. Normally one of Bainbridge’s best hitters, Stevenson had been shackled all Series and there was a sense in the stands that he was set to shake loose as he stood at the plate representing the game’s tying run.But, after a couple of teasing foul balls, Stevenson grounded sharply to first to conclude the 2-0 defeat.I think we were trying to guess instead of hitting what we could see, French said. I know what unhittable is, and (LaFavers) isn’t it.Lost in the loss was Stevenson’s heroic performance on the mound. The lefthander shut down the Apopka attack for four innings as he struggled through a tightened left bicep problem that forced between-innings rubdowns.They’re a very good team, solid defensively, and that little guy did a great job moving the ball in and out and changing speeds on us, Apopka Manager Bob Brewer said.But the struggle got the better of him in the fifth, as Cobb led off with a single, moved to third on two ground balls, and scored on a single by Stuart Tapley. After a walk, LaFavers brought Tapley around with a sharply sliced single to right.French was confident his team would show its best the rest of the way – especially against Rolando Paulino. He said the New York team may be getting the most attention at the Series, but definitely could be had.There hasn’t been a lot of pouting, swearing or hollering, except from me, French said. If I were these kids, I’d be bouncing off the walls. But with these guys, there’s no peaks and no valleys. And maybe that’s what’s going to help us keep going.Win or lose, French put his team’s presence here in perspective.The Top 16 in the world is pretty amazing for a little island, he said. Our school enrollment had dropped, our baseball enrollment dropped by 120 this year, and yet, here we are. “