The East Harlem Little League team lost 6-1 to Maine-Endwell yesterday in its first game of the New York State Final Four in Wellsville, to fall into the losers’ bracket of the double-elimination tournament.

East Harlem starter Brian Paolino retired the first four hitters he faced before allowing back-to-back home runs to Corey Carden and Alec Romanowski and another to Trevor MacDonald later in the inning.

Paolino was replaced by Jeffrey Ledesma, who put up zeroes until the sixth inning, when the Binghamton-area squad tacked on three insurance runs.

Maine-Endwell starter Carter Austin kept East Harlem scoreless into the fifth inning, when Joshua DeJesus’ groundout plated pinch-runner Aneuris Hernandez.

“I think our boys might have been a little overwhelmed by the whole experience at first,” East Harlem manager Michael Martinez told the Wellsville Daily-Reporter after the game. “We made some mistakes, and like any good team, they capitalized on them.”

East Harlem will face Orange County’s Pine Bush in the losers’ bracket today at 1 p.m., and Maine-Endwell will take on Nassau County entrant Plainview at 3 p.m.