BANGOR – The Freehold Township, N.J., All-Stars may have been frustrated by the off-speed offerings of Vilnius, Lithuania, righthander Lukas Deksnys – leaving nine runners in scoring position Sunday during their first game of pool play at the 2007 Senior League World Series.

But they weren’t denied victory, as Chris Leroy pitched a two-hitter and Anthony Cirillo broke the game open with a two-run, fifth inning double as the U.S. East champions earned a hard-fought 4-1 victory over the Europe-Middle East-Africa representatives.

While Deksnys was hittable, yielding 10 singles and one double in six innings, Freehold Township – the 2004 SLWS champion – struggled to bunch hits sufficiently to put the game away early.

“We were trying to move up, move back, move closer to the plate,” said Cirillo, the Freehold Township leadoff hitter and shortstop who also singled twice. “We didn’t know what to do. We never really got to him, but we got the runs we needed.”

Lithuania scored an unearned run in the top of the fourth to forge a 1-1 tie, as Edvardas Matusevicius reached on an error, went to third on a single by Lukas Bradauskas and scored on a passed ball.

Freehold Township then loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the inning, but managed only a 2-1 lead on an RBI walk by Steve Talbott.

But with Leroy shutting down the Lithuanian offense, Freehold Township finally got the big hit it needed in the fifth.

Leroy hit a two-out single to center and went to third as Bryan Gillis reached on an error. Pinch-runner Gerry Plescia stole second before Cirillo lined a double to center that gave the U.S. East champs a three-run lead.

“It was a 2-0 count so I knew he had to come to me,” said Cirillo. “I didn’t want to be caught lunging so I just stayed back and the pitch was right there. I was a little out in front, but I threw my hands at it and hit it in the gap.”

Leroy retired the last 12 batters he faced and threw just 76 pitches in a complete-game performance that included three strikeouts and two walks.

“My fastball was working so we tried to keep it on the inside and jam them,” said Leroy. “The curve was working sometimes, but I didn’t try to get that for a strike, I tried to get them reaching.”

Leroy and Tom Wojciechowski each added two singles for the winners, while Dan Klinsky added an RBI single in the first inning after Cirillo singled to stake Freehold Township to a 1-0 lead.

“We faced a pitcher who wasn’t throwing as hard and had a lot of junk on the ball, and he had our guys off stride,” said Freehold Township manager Anthony Cirillo, father of the team’s shortstop. “A few hitters got some key hits, thank God, because if not it would have been a closer game than that.”

U.S. EAST 4, EMEA 1

(Pool B)

LITHUANIA FREEHOLD TWP, N.J.

ab r h bi ab r h bi

Kalanta, cf 3 0 0 0 Cirillo, ss 4 1 2

Vilbikas, 2b 3 0 1 0 Klinsky, cf 4 0 1

Mtsvcius, lf 2 1 0 0 Talbott, lf 3 0 1

Brdskas, 1b 3 0 1 0 Ballester, 3b 4 0 0

Dnkvskis,ss 2 0 0 0 Kropa, rf 0 0 0

Austnas, ph 1 0 0 0 Wjchski, ph 4 0 0

Jsknskas,3b 3 0 0 0 Holmann, 1b 4 0 0

Jacevcus,c 3 0 0 0 Purves, c 3 0 0

Krukis, rf 1 0 0 0 Leroy, p 3 1 0

Deksnys,p 2 0 0 0 Gillis, 2b 2 1 0

Plescia, pr 0 1 0 0

Totals 23 1 2 0 Totals 31 4 11 4

Vilnius, Lithuania 000 100 0 – 1

Freehold Twp, N.J. 100 120 x – 4

E-Dankovskis 3, Matusevicius; Gillis, Purves; DP-Lithuania 1; LOB-Lithuania 3, Freehold Twp., N.J. 11; 2B-Cirillo; SB-Bradauskas; Klinsky, Plescia

EMEA IP H R ER BB SO

Deksnys (L, 0-1) 6 11 4 1 2 2

U.S. East

Leroy (W, 1-0) 7 2 1 0 2 3

PB-Purves.

T-1:40; A-500 (est.)