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BRISTOL, Conn. — The outs were running low and the end of the journey was drawing near, but the Bonny Eagle Little League softball team figured there was a rally coming. There had always been a rally coming.

“Typically, in our last couple of games, we haven’t been doing very well at the beginning. Then in the fourth inning, we would just start bombing it,” third baseman Brylee Goriss said. “We were just saying ‘We just need one run to stay in.'”

The run never came, and as a result, the storybook ride came to a finish. Bonny Eagle fell to Guilford, Connecticut, and pitching standout Maeve Eagleson, 1-0, in the New England Region final Friday at Leon J. Breen Field.

“I think it’s a great accomplishment to make it to Bristol and make it through states,” Goriss said. “It was fun staying here, it was great that we got in the championship game, but it is a bummer that we did lose.”

Bonny Eagle was aiming to become the first Maine team to reach the Little League Softball World Series and was one victory away from reaching that goal. But a formidable Guilford team and Eagleson, who threw a no-hitter and struck out 10, provided too tough a challenge for a Maine team that won four of its previous five games in the tournament.

“It’s disappointment. A little sad, for sure,” said coach Leanne Pouliot, who got six strikeouts against three hits allowed from her pitcher, Jasmine Peters. “But I told the girls, feel it for a minute, and then go back to being proud of everything they’ve done. They’ve worked so hard. I know that’s their dream, but it’s OK.”

And that’s a reason Pouliot, her hair covered in the green glitter that marked everywhere the Bonny Eagle team went during its seven-day stint in Connecticut, occasionally couldn’t hide a smile as she talked about her team’s path, which included three straight victories when it was one loss away from having to head home.

“I’m not shocked in the least,” she said. “I wasn’t shocked that they made it through those games, at all. They set that early on as a goal, and they followed through.

“To come up one run short is tough. There are a few tears. But not many. They know what they did was huge.”

Guilford, an hour away from Bristol, unsurprisingly had more fans show up to cheer on their team in the 90-degree heat, but a contingent of Maine fans was on hand to support Bonny Eagle — including Lily Regan and Emily Ireland, the pitcher and catcher on the Bonny Eagle team that reached the regional final and lost to Connecticut in 2023, with many players from this year’s Bonny Eagle team in attendance.

Regan had a sign that read “You came to watch my team. Today I’m here to watch yours. Go Maine!”

“It’s really cool. I’m happy that I was able to come down and watch them,” she said. “It’s cool that another Maine team gets to experience this again.”

While Peters impressed, the defense behind her made plays to keep Connecticut off the board. In the second, Kali Reinhold hit a hot grounder to the left of Goriss, who effortlessly snagged it and threw to first for an out. In the first and third innings, Bonny Eagle caught Guilford runners in rundowns off third base. In the fourth, Olivia Mahon singled but was caught stealing on a perfect throw to second base from Julia Peters (Jasmine’s sister).

“That’s what we talk about, your game knowledge and your game readiness,” Pouliot said. “They see the field really well, they see those base runners really well.”

The rare time Bonny Eagle didn’t make a tough play resulted in the only run of the game. In the bottom of the second, after Addy Pradith walked and advanced on a passed ball, Michaela Mascari smacked a hard line drive to first base. The ball caromed off Liberty Atkinson’s glove for a single, allowing Pradith to come home.

Bonny Eagle was trailing, but the team that scored five runs in the third inning to break a 1-1 tie against Vermont and six runs in the fourth to erase a 3-1 deficit against Rhode Island earlier in the tournament sensed it wasn’t finished.

“We were waiting for that one person to get the one hit that we needed,” shortstop Baylee Pouliot said. “We knew it was going to be one of our hardest games to play. It was.”

Bonny Eagle got a runner on base in the fifth, but Guilford escaped unscathed. It was the last threat from the Maine team.

Bonny Eagle players, though, ended the tournament knowing they had made their mark.

“It was great. My goal was to make it all the way, but I’m proud of what we did,” Jasmine Peters said. “We fell a little short, but we were grinding to the end.”