BANGOR – A spirited practice during Sunday helped spur the Rose Capital East American/National Little League of Tyler, Texas, to opening-game success at the Senior League World Series on Monday.

Shortstop Tyler Clakley singled four times and drove in two runs as the Texas East and U.S. Southwest champions pulled away from Vilnius, Lithuania, 10-1 at Mansfield Stadium.

“I hit pretty good in practice yesterday so I felt pretty good coming in today,” said Clakley, whose team was idle on Sunday, the first day of the tournament. “I was kind of nervous the first at-bat, but you get over that.”

Sunday’s practice also shook some of the travel-related weariness off the team, the last of the 10 SLWS participants to arrive in Bangor just as opening ceremonies were about to begin Saturday evening.

“We’re just a little bit jetlagged,” said manager Bobby Rushing. “We had a practice [Sunday] where we had to have a little attitude adjustment, but we knew that was probably going to be fine under the circumstances, traveling 3,000 miles on an airplane.

“But we did what we had to do today, and that was win.”

The Texas team gradually adapted to Lithuanian righthander Edvardas Matusevicius, who didn’t throw hard but limited the U.S. Southwest champions to two runs and three hits during the first three innings.

“Anytime you have a kid [who throws off-speed] and you’re used to seeing 85 or 90 miles per hour pitching, it is an adjustment for these kids,” said Rushing.

The Texans, 1-0 in Pool B play, broke the game open in the fourth inning, plating five runs on six hits – five coming consecutively with one out – to extend their lead to 7-0.

Justin Copeland, Sam Ivy, Heath Mayo, Seth Cashion and Clakley each had RBI singles during the uprising.

“It’s pretty tough to go into a game and you don’t know anything about them, but you learn quickly,” Clakley said. “We made some adjustments early, and that’s what helped us in the ballgame.”

The U.S. Southwest champions finished with 14 hits, 13 of them singles. Copeland and Ivy each had two singles and two RBIs, while Cashion added two RBIs with a single and a sacrifice fly and Zach Cannon chipped in with a double.

“We came out and knew we had something to prove, so we wanted to win the first one,” said Clakley. “It’s a good start.”

Righthander R.B. Bell worked into the sixth inning for the pitching win. He scattered six hits while striking out one and walking three before getting relief help from Josh Holley and Dalton Clakley.

Lithuania (0-2) scored its only run in the sixth. Cleanup batter Azuolas Jasinskas hit a one-out single to center and stole second base. Aranas Dankovskis then walked before Davydas Neverauskas singled to left to drive home Jasinskas.

Jasinskas was the lone repeat hitter for the Europe-Middle East-Africa champions with a pair of singles.

Lithuania next plays U.S. Central champion Niles, Mich., at 10 a.m. Tuesday, while Tyler, Texas, faces Latin America champion Falcon, Venezuela, at 1 p.m.

U.S. SOUTHWEST 10, EMEA 1

(Pool B Monday)

Tyler, Texas Vilnius, Lithuania

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Mayo, lf 4 2 2 1 Vilbikas, 2b 3 0 0

T.Clakley,ss 4 1 4 2 Mtsvcius, p 3 0 0

Bell, p 3 1 0 0 Brdusks, 1b 4 0 0

Holley, p 0 0 0 0 Jsnskas, 3b 4 1 1

D.Clakley,p 0 0 0 0 Dnlvskis, ss 2 0 0

Cashion, c 3 0 1 2 Jacvcius,c 1 0 0

Attaway, 3b 4 0 0 0 Nvrausks, c 1 0 0

Rushing, rf 3 0 1 0 Krukis, rf 2 0 0

Brandon, 1b 4 2 1 0 Kalanta, cf 3 0 0

Copelnd, cf 4 2 2 2 Znkvcius,lf 1 0 0

Ivy, 2b 3 0 2 2 Draugls, lf 1 0 0

Cannon, 2b 1 0 1 0 Agstinas, lf 0 0 0

Krebs, rf 0 2 0 0

Totals 33 10 14 9 Totals 25 1 6 1

U.S. Southwest 101 501 2 – 10

EMEA 000 001 0 – 1

E-Bell; Jacevicius, Kalanta, Dankovskis; LOB-U.S. Southwest 5, EMEA 9; 2B-Cannon; SF-Cashion; S-Bell; Matusevicius; SB-Brandon 2, Copeland 2, Mayo, T. Clakley, Bell, Krebs; Jasinkas

U.S. Southwest IP H R ER BB SO

Bell (W, 1-0) 5 1/3 6 1 1 3 1

Holley 2/3 0 0 0 2 1

D. Clakley 1 0 0 0 0 0

EMEA

Matusvcs (L, 0-1) 4 9 7 6 0 2

Jasinskas 2 1/3 3 1 1 0 1

Vilbikas 2/3 2 2 2 1 0

WP-Matusevicius 2.

T-2:19; A-200 (est.).