LONDON – Bowling Green East did not go down without a fight.

As the two-time defending champions of Kentucky and the Great Lakes Region, the 11- and 12-year-old All-Stars swung for – and over – the fences in their quest for a three-peat.

Despite a late comeback, BG East finally met a deficit it couldn’t overcome and fell 11-8 to Lexington Eastern in the Kentucky Little League state championship game Wednesday night in London.

BG East rallied twice with big swings. It fought from four runs down early, but Lexington Eastern scored seven runs in the fourth and fifth innings. A six-run hole in the bottom of the sixth inning proved too big a hill to climb.

The season ends for the BG East squad that made back-to-back Little League World Series appearances. Lexington Eastern advances to the Great Lakes Regional in Indianapolis in August.

“I just thought they did a fantastic job and they never quit,” BG East manager Rick Kelley said. “They represented the league and the city so well. I’m just so proud of them and couldn’t ask for anything more.”

Four home runs from Patrick Forbes, Dawson Hall, Caden Whittle and Davis Fant kept BG East within striking distance. It trailed 11-5 going into the bottom of the sixth inning before Whittle sent a two-run shot over the fence to cut the gap to four runs.

Two batters later, Patrick Forbes, the only returning player from the LLWS team, hit a solo homer for his fourth in as many games.

Blake Ginter drew a walk before Leighton Harris struck out Fant and Hall to give BG East its first loss of the postseason.

“We were fighting until the last pitch and we did great,” Forbes said. “It was a great experience last year and I thought we could do it this year, but we couldn’t pull it out. Lexington Eastern did a great job.”

Kelley said after BG East won its third straight District 1 title that Lexington Eastern would be the prohibitive favorite in the state tournament. BG East found out quickly why that was the case with Harrison Tibe throwing heat near 70 mph.

It appeared Tibe had BG East on its heels with one hit allowed in the first two innings. Meanwhile, Lexington Eastern went on its own tear. BG East starter Blake Ginter lasted just 27 pitches before he was replaced by Whittle while trailing 1-0 in the second inning. Whittle gave up a three-run homer to Max Degraff in the third inning that put Lexington Eastern up 4-0.

BG East quickly responded with Whittle hitting a double to lead off the bottom of the third, then scoring on a RBI groundout from Forbes. Fant and Hall put together back-to-back homers that tied it at 4-4 heading into the fourth.

Whittle appeared stronger by striking out the first two batters he faced in the fourth, but gave up two straight two-strike hits. Ty Bryant made him pay with a three-run homer to push Lexington Eastern back in front 7-4.

Graham Johnson took Whittle on his first pitch of the fifth inning for a solo home run before Lexington Eastern built a 11-4 lead through five innings.

“We gave up too many runs and we knew they were a good hitting team, and that that was where we would come up short,” Kelley said. “They were just solid from 1-9 hitting the ball. We just didn’t have any margin for error. That was the difference in the game.”

BG East did its best to tread water against Tibe, who reached his 85-pitch limit after five innings. He had eight strikeouts and allowed five hits and two homers.

Daniel Murphy and Jacob Gholston got BG East through the top of the sixth inning to give itself a chance in the bottom of the frame.

BG East used no less than four pitchers in each game at the state tournament. The team used five pitchers in the title game to combine for nine strikeouts.

“We didn’t have that commanding pitcher,” Kelley said. “We didn’t have somebody we could give the ball to for 85 pitches. It was always a piecemeal situation and that’s always difficult to do in tournament play. You just have to give our guys so much credit because they would take the ball and be willing to go for that 30-40 pitch outing and do the job.”

Forbes, Ginter and Whittle each finished with two hits. In five state tournament games, BG East hit 14 home runs.

“It made you feel really confident 1-9,” Whittle said. “We have a better top-to-bottom team than anyone we faced so far … We had big shoes to fill and we came really close. It ended up being a really close game.”{&end}