Bristol — Something Tim Burrows did a lot of Wednesday afternoon: Walk to the mound, shake hands with his pitcher, then hand the ball to the next guy in.

With his Waterford Little League baseball team falling behind early in a winners' bracket game at the New England Regional Tournament at Leon J. Breen Field, 7-0 after two innings, Burrows turned his efforts to preserving his pitchers' eligibility for later in the tournament. Such as Thursday.

Waterford, no-hit through 3.2 innings by Bedford, N.H., ace Michael Pratte, lost 16-1 to Bedford in a game shortened to four innings due to the mercy rule. Waterford won its opener Monday 3-2 over Cranston Western of Rhode Island on a complete-game effort by pitcher Jared Burrows.

Waterford will now play Biddeford, Maine, at 1 p.m. Thursday in an elimination game.

“They weren't hitting their spots, but at least they were trying,” Tim Burrows said of his pitching staff Wednesday. “There were some hard-hit balls. I don't know how big a town Bedford is, but to have that many kids hit the ball like that … it's a really good team.”

Waterford used five pitchers: Luke Sokolski, Connor Podeszwa, Ryan O'Connell, Michael Marelli and Robert Zawacki.

Bedford responded with 11 hits, including three home runs, one a third-inning grand slam by No. 3 hitter Kyle Lavigne, who finished with six RBI.

Bedford got line shots from its first three hitters, singles by Zach Fletcher and Pratte and an RBI double by Lavigne, on which Pratte scored as well on a Waterford error. It was 7-0 after two, with Bedford getting a leadoff homer by Austin Bequeath, and 14-0 after three. Fletcher homered in the fourth to drive in the final two runs.

Burrows was pleased with his team's effort, if not the score, until the fourth, even joking that his team needed a touchdown to extend the game another inning. But after Pratte, a lefty, exited for Bedford with two outs in the fourth, Burrows wasn't happy at all with his team's approach.

For one thing, the final out of the game was made by a runner who strayed too far off second base.

“I told them, 'Go up there with a plan.' I was OK with it until the end. … That's the stuff, I get irritated with it. If you get beat, get beat giving it your all.”

Bedford was playing its first game in the tournament, having received a bye into the second round by virtue of a coin flip (along with Vermont representative South Burlington) and had Pratte fresh.

After walking Jared Burrows to start the game, Pratte — whom Tim Burrows said threw harder than any other pitcher Waterford has faced this season — struck out the side in the first and finished with five strikeouts, three walks and a hit-by-pitch.

“Our team was ready,” Pratte said. “We were listening to music before the game getting ready.”

New Hampshire moves on to play South Burlington in Thursday's winners' bracket final, with the winner of that game reaching Sunday's championship game.

Waterford, meanwhile, will have to win games Thursday, Friday and Saturday to reach the finale.

“Well, we got a long road to get there,” Burrows said. “… We've come this far. We've played 17 games (going 14-3). Our team is our team.

“… Our travel team one time when we were 10, we played up with the 11s and this team did what they did. But when we played them the second time around, we mercied them. This is a tough bunch. We aren't done yet. We can come back. It's baseball. We beat a great team Monday. We're a great team. We'll figure it out.”

v.fulkerson@theday.com

Twitter: @vickieattheday