The opposition walks Kyle Carter, the Columbus, Ga., leadoff man and perhaps the tournament's finest player, to face Lester. What had happened often throughout the regular season was happening again on Thursday.

"It just motivates me when they walk him. I just want to get a hit that much more," Lester said.

And has been the case all year -- now on a stage in front of 19,468 in the U.S. semifinals of the Little League World Series -- Lester came through. Big time.

When Portsmouth, N.H., intentionally walked Carter to load the bases with two outs in a scoreless second, Lester drove a bases-clearing triple to the right-field wall. And when a stubborn Portsmouth team again put Carter on base in the fourth, Lester hit a two-run double.

Lester's offensive outpouring and another brilliant showing from Carter on the mound all added up to give Columbus an 8-0 win and a berth in Saturday's U.S. championship game against Beaverton, Ore.

"I just can't say enough good things about their No. 2 hitter," New Hampshire manager Mark McCauley said. "They're not a one-man team."

He acknowledged, though, that he wouldn't have changed a thing. So what exactly is the strategy to employ in dealing with Columbus's top of the lineup duo?

"It's hard. When they pitch to him, he hits. When they don't, I hit," Lester said, laughing.

Laughing because they had just given life to this most unlikely and thrilling of rides for at least two more days.

"This is a dream," Columbus manager Randy Morris said. "Like I told the kids, 'You're playing for the United States championship.' It can't get any better than that. Words can't even describe the feeling."

Their series-long modus operandi changed slightly on Thursday. The lock-down pitching remained a constant, with Carter holding the Portsmouth scoreless on just two hits over six innings. The left-handed ace, now in position to pitch in Sunday's world championship if the occasion arises, has now struck out 19 hitters over 13 scoreless innings at the series.

Their bats did not. After scoring just seven runs in three games of pool play, a revitalized offense battered three Portsmouth pitchers in scoring multiple runs in three different frames.

Lester's three-run triple in the second essentially decided this one. That it came with Portsmouth pitcher Keegan Taylor just one strike away from escaping the inning unscathed only added to the shift in the game's balance.

"Big momentum swing," Morris said.

For good measure, as if to make Portsmouth pay for picking on a buddy, Carter drove a two-run homer over the center-field wall on the first hittable pitch he saw in the fifth.

Portsmouth's coach called Carter perhaps the top player he had ever seen.

"I can't let it get to my head," Carter said in a thick southern drawl. "I take a lot of batting practice and I practice a lot. Sometimes, it pays off, sometimes it don't."

The payoff is apparently not complete. Carter timidly shook his head when he was then asked if fans had seen his best baseball.

That was certainly the case this week with Portsmouth's Taylor, who was charged with four runs, lasting just 1 2/3 innings. So terrific in tournament play, it was a disappointing series for Taylor. In his only other appearance earlier this week, the 13-year-old right-hander was tagged for four runs over just 2 2/3 innings.

"It's been a long season. Some of these guys are running on fumes, even though they would never tell you that," McCauley said. "We asked Keegan to give us everything he had, throw as hard as he could for as long as he could."

It was hardly enough on a night where McCauley was simply trying to "cobble together" a win. The same could not be said for Portsmouth's season.

Enshrouded in controversy after making national headlines by winning a regional game by way of forfeit, advancing to the semifinals and delivering their small New Hampshire town with what was likely the best team the area will ever see was more than anyone could have ever asked for.

"We've had the most incredible summer 13 kids and three coaches could ever imagine," McCauley said. "It's just been an absolute dream ride for us."