BANGOR – Freehold Township, N.J., manager Anthony Cirillo decided to throw a curveball at the 15- and 16-year-olds from Niles, Mich., in a Senior League World Series Pool B matchup at Mansfield Stadium Monday.

He did, in the form of curveball specialist Josh Leahy, who kept Niles in check over five innings while Chris Ballester knocked in four runs as the U.S. East representatives improved to 2-0 in pool play with a 10-1 victory over U.S. Central.

After watching Michigan’s game against Venezuela on Sunday, Cirillo had a gut feeling that throwing his breaking-ball specialist would fool Michigan’s hitters, who saw mostly fastballs against Venezuela.

“I knew I needed someone to throw them off today, so we went with Josh,” Cirillo said. “It worked pretty well. Josh had a great game.”

Leahy’s teammates gave him a 2-0 cushion before he even threw a pitch. Steve Talbot and Chris Ballester each knocked run-scoring singles, capping a burst of four consecutive hits off Central starter Taylor Ort.

New Jersey made it 3-0 in the second, with Matt Hohmann scoring on a throwing error by Ort.

Central (0-2) never mounted a huge rally against Leahy, who mixed in his curve that broke at the knees with a fastball and changeup.

“My curveball works good. It would throw them off balance once in a while,” Leahy said.

Leahy got into some trouble in the top of the sixth, allowing a single to Dominique Pompey and a double to Dan Reidenbach with nobody out.

With Leahy’s pitch count rising near 90 pitches, Cirillo turned to third baseman Ballester to stop the bleeding.

“My arm started to feel a little sore and my pitch count was getting high,” said Leahy, whose final line was one earned run, five hits, one walk and one strikeout over five-plus innings.

After surrendering an RBI groundout to Justin Stroud, Ballester struck out Tyler Jackson and Ricky Briand to end the threat.

Ballester got the first out of the seventh, then Anthony Cirillo, the manager’s son, came on to pitch the final 2/3 of an inning.

The Freehold manager said that once Leahy had an early lead, he was right in his comfort zone, attacking the strike zone with breaking balls and generating many fly-ball outs.

“Any team, any pitcher, you give them an early lead, they’ll feel comfortable on the mound,” Cirillo said. “They’re going to throw you a good game and that’s what happened today.”

Central’s Ort did have the New Jersey hitters off balance for a little while but had trouble throwing his breaking ball for strikes and was forced to hum in fastballs.

“He couldn’t get his other pitches over, so we were looking fastball the whole time,” said cleanup man Ballester, who belted an RBI triple to deep center in the fifth and added a two-run single in the seventh.

Klinsky added another RBI single in the fifth while Gerald Plescia and Bryan Gillis contributed an RBI single apiece in the seventh.

Reidenbach singled and doubled while Kevin Gross contributed a single and a double for Niles, Mich.

U.S. EAST 10, U.S. CENTRAL 1

(Pool B, Monday)

U.S. East U.S. Central

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Cirillo, ss-p 3 2 2 0 Gladden, lf 3 0

Klinsky, cf 3 3 2 1 Knisely, lf 1 0 0

Talbot, lf 3 1 1 1 Johnson, c 3 0 0

Btr, 3b-p-ss4 1 3 4 Ort, p-3b 4 0 0

Wjcwski, 1b 2 0 0 0 Pompey, 1b 2 0 0

Leroy, c 3 0 1 0 Udell, 1b 1 1 0

Plscia, pr-c 1 2 1 1 Rdnbch, rf-p 3 0 0

Gillis, rf-3b 3 0 1 1 McCmbs, ss 2 0

Prisi, rf-3b 0 0 0 0 Stroud, ss 1 0 1

Purves, 2b 4 0 1 1 Brawley, 2b 2 0 0

Hhmn, pr-1b 2 1 0 0 Jackson, 2b 1 0 0

Leahy, p 2 0 0 1 Coar, cf 1 0 0

Kropa, rf 0 0 0 0 Briand, cf 1 0 0

Gross, 3b-rf 3 0 2 0

Totals 30 10 12 10 28 1 6 1

U.S. East 210 021 4 – 10

U.S. Central 000 001 0 – 1

E-Ballester 2; Ort, Reidenbach, McCombs; LOB-U.S. East 4, U.S. Central 8; 2B-Cirillo; Reidenbach, Gross; 3B-Ballester; S-Leahy; SB-Parisi; CS-Talbot, Leahy

U.S. East IP H R ER BB SO

Leahy (W) 5 5 1 1 1 1

Ballester 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 3

Cirillo 2/3 0 0 0 0 0

U.S. Central

Ort (L) 5 9 6 4 1 3

Reidenbach 2 3 4 3 1 2

Leahy pitched to 2 batters in the sixth

HBP-Johnson (by Leahy); Talbot (by Reidenbach); WP-Reidenbach 2; BK-Leahy; Ort

T-1:49; A- 500