BANGOR – The U.S. Central Senior League World Series representative prides itself on its defense. Error-free play in the field and a fifth-inning, bases-loaded double play helped Urbandale, Iowa, team beat Europe-Middle East-Africa (EMEA) Tuesday morning.

The U.S. Central squad also took advantage of five errors by the team from Tbilsi in the former Soviet republic of Georgia for an 11-1 win in five innings in a Pool B matchup at Mansfield Stadium.

Urbandale Little League moves to 2-1 in Pool B. Georgia YMCA Little League is 0-2.

“This helps because the top two teams [in each pool] advance, and we’ve already lost one, so we don’t want to lose another one,” said Alex Conlon, who gave up five hits and one unearned run in the win.

The Central team is off Wednesday and wraps up pool play Thursday at 1 p.m. against the U.S. Southwest.

EMEA returns to the field twice Wednesday. The first game, which is the resumption of a rain delayed game against the U.S. East, will start at 9 a.m. EMEA will return at 2 p.m. to face Latin America.

The U.S. Central took a 7-1 lead into the bottom of the fifth and scored four runs in the inning to end the game early. There were three EMEA fielding errors in the inning, plus a two-run single by Andrew Weeks.

Conlon contributed on offense with a single, an RBI and three runs scored but he got a big boost from his defense in the top of the fifth.

He gave up a leadoff walk to Nick Razmadze, who stole second, but was put out at third after he tried to advance on a fielder’s choice ball that Levan Gobajishvili hit back to Condon.

That lead runner was gone, but EMEA didn’t give up. David Mukhadze singled, which put Gobajishvili at second, followed by a Tarash Tavadze single to load the bases with one out.

But the next EMEA batter, Levan Telia, hit a groundball to Central shortstop Mike Hoberg. He threw to second baseman Sean Raisch to force out Tavadze. Raisch fired to first baseman Weeks to get Telia.

“Normally we take a lot of pride in our defense,” Conlon said. “That’s how we get here.”

The Central team has committed just one error in its three games. That came Monday in a 5-2 win over the U.S. East.

Kelly Waddell doubled and singled for the U.S. Central.

EMEA’s run the result of back-to-back singles, a fielder’s choice, and a passed ball that allowed Otar Minesashvili to score from third.

EMEA continued to struggle with errors. One day after committing four in a loss to the U.S. Southwest team, Tbilsi’s defense again had trouble against the U.S. Central team.

Chalk it up to the team’s – and nation’s – inexperience.

“Baseball is the American national pastime and we’re just developing,” said EMEA coach Gia Chikhradze. “This is one of our challenges. It’s normal for us to have so many errors but it’s not natural for a U.S. team. We’re just starting this game.”

U.S. CENTRAL 11, EMEA 1

(Pool B)

Tbilisi, Georgia (0-2) Urbandale, Iowa (2-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Mukhadze, cf 3 0 1 0 Hoberg, ss 2 2 1

Tavadze, ss 2 0 1 0 Waddell, c 4 2 0

Ambokadze, 3b 1 0 0 0 Conlon, p 3 1

Metreveli, lf 2 0 0 0 Norris, 1b 2 0

Telia, lf-rf 1 0 0 0 Weeks, 1b 1 2 2

Minesshvili, 3b-ss 2 1 2 0 Schuck, 3b 3 1

Nikolashvili, p 1 0 1 0 Raisch, 2b 3 0

Chitishvili, c 2 0 0 0 Miles, lf 2 0

Letodiani, 2b 2 0 0 0 Coffey, lf 0 0

Gvalia, 2b 0 0 0 0 Watson, rf 1 0 1

Razmadze, 1b 0 0 0 0 Englund, rf 1 0 2

Gokhokidze, rf-lf 1 0 0 0 Davis, cf 2 0

Gobajishvili, lf 1 0 0 0

Totals 18 1 5 0 Totals 24 11 9 8

EMEA 010 00 – 1

U.S. Central 311 24 – 11

E-Tavadze, Razmadze 2, Gakhokidze 2; LOB-EMEA 5, U.S. Central 9; 2B-Waddell, Schuck; DP-Hoberg-Raisch-Weeks; SB-Minesashvili, Razmadze; Hoberg 2, Conlon, Weeks, Raisch, Miles

EMEA IP H R ER BB SO

Nikolashvili (L, 0-1) 4 9 11 6 6 1

U.S. Central IP H R ER BB SO

Conlon (W, 1-0) 5 5 1 0 3 4

HBP-Hoberg, Weeks by Nikolashvili; WP-Nikolashvili; PB-Waddell; T-1:38; ATT-150 (est.)