It’ll be a rematch of the slugfest today (2 p.m.) at Breen Field in Bristol Connecticut when Peabody West Little League plays Lincoln, R.I., for the championship game in the New England Regionals.The winner gets a trip to the Little League World Series, which begins – for either team – Friday at 8 p.m. against the Southwest champions.The New England champions have been put into a pool with the Southwest, West and Great Lakes regions. The other pool contains the Southeast, Northwest, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest.Peabody defeated Connecticut, 12-1, in a four-inning game Thursday night to earn its spot in the regional final. The Westerners had already gone farther than any other team in their history, and seek to become the second Lynn-area team from this decade to reach the LLWS. Saugus American went in 2003, making it all the way to the national final before bowing out.Last Sunday, Peabody engaged in a pretty good struggle with Rhode Island, winning the game, 10-8, but not without some high level drama.Rhode Island took the lead, 3-0, in the bottom of the first inning, but Peabody made a couple of nice defensive plays – including one by shortstop Austin Batchelor – to keep it from getting any worse.Peabody recovered in the top of the second, scoring five runs with two outs, but Rhode Island came back in the bottom of the inning to tie the score again at 5-5.>From there, Peabody started to pull ahead, making the score 10-5 by the fifth inning. However, Rhode Island came back with two more runs in the fifth to close the gap to 10-7, and then tacked on another in the bottom of the sixth, and had the bases loaded with two outs, before relief pitcher A.J. DeFillipo got the last out on a strikeout.Matt Hosman, the starter in the game, pitched Thursday and is not eligible to throw today. Batchelor is expected to start the game. He has pitched twice thus far, beating Maine Saturday and New Hampshire Tuesday.Hosman has led the offensive parade for Peabody, hitting .800.Manager Dave Batchelor was in Bristol in 2006 as a spectator, when his son, Bobby, was on the team that made it to the final four, but lost to Glastonury, Conn. He says he learned a few things along the way.”The key, of course,” he said, “is to get into the semifinals ?and to have your pitching lined up properly. That would seem to be the case here. Not needing to win Wednesday’s game against Connecticut, as it had already clinched a spot in the final four, Batchelor bypassed both Hosman and his son and cobbled together a game among three pitchers. That left his two aces – Hosman and Austin Batchelor – ready for action.”Way back in the beginning,” he said, “it occurred to me that we might have a chance. And now ? we’re here.”