Orange — The Pawcatuck/Westerly Little League Junior Softball team had seen and heard about Northfield (N.J.) wrecking teams at the East Regional tournament.

Pawcatuck/Westerly (ages 13-14) wasn’t having any of it at Thursday morning’s championship game.

Miranda Arruda’s leadoff double started a four-run, first inning as Pawcatuck/Westerly shut down unbeaten Northfield, 5-0, at the Orange Little League Complex and earned a trip to the World Series.

“When your leadoff batter gets on and gets a double, it really pumps everybody up,” teammate Trinity Lennon said. “‘OK, we can hit this pitcher.’”

Northfield outscored opponents 40-10 in its previous four tournament games.

“We had heard a lot from other teams that they’re good hitters,” Arruda said. “Four runs (in the first inning) … in these games, it’s a lot.”

Pawcatuck/Westerly flies Friday to Kirkland, Wash., for the World Series. It starts pool play at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday against West champion Sunnyside of Tucson (Ariz.).

Sunnyside was a semifinalist at last summer’s tournament and won the 2013 Little League (11-12) world championship.

Northfield scored no fewer than 7 runs a game during the East Regionals. It battered Mid Island of Staten Island on Wednesday, 16-6, to win the Mid-Atlantic title.

Northfield couldn’t gain any traction against Lennon and Pawcatuck/Westerly’s defense. Lennon scattered seven hits with a strikeout.

“I can’t say enough about (Lennon),” Pawcatuck/Westerly manager Ray Arruda said. “That New Jersey team, we watched a couple of their games, and they put up run after run after run every game. … That’s a great performance by her.”

Miranda Arruda said, “I just love her. She can just shut (batters) down whenever she wants.”

Briana Beverly walked after Arruda’s leadoff double. Abigail Flakus singled home Arruda as Beverly took third.

Pawcatuck/Westerly continued its aggression as Flakus stole second, resulting in a throwing error that scored Beverly.

Lennon walked and rounded first base to force a throw over. It led to another error and scored Flakus.

“We’re going to run until they throw us out,” Ray Arruda said. “You’ve got to make (defenses) make plays, and we’ve learned this from ourselves because if teams do it to us, we get rattled.

“We turn our bases, and I want (defenses) making throws. … The girl made a throw and it tipped off the glove and we got a run. We got three or four of those in the tournament.”

Megan Albamonti and Katherine Sanford walked to load the bases. Alex Mitchell walked with one out to force home Albamonti to push Pawcatuck/Westerly ahead, 4-0.

Northfield could've scored in the bottom of the first as it had runners at the corners with one out.

Instead, Lennon retired the next batter on a line drive to Beverly in centerfield, who turned it into a double play to end the inning.

Mitchell hit a leadoff single in the fourth and was sacrificed over to second base by Collete Dreher.

Mitchell scored on a wild pitch and throwing error with two outs.

Erin Craig started at catcher for Pawcatuck/Westerly, and Megan Perrin, Amanda Mazikas, Olivia Marsh and Julia Garro were subs.

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED