The first two entries in the 2008 Senior League World Series have been determined.

Vilnius, Lithuania, and the Philippines both emerged victorious in regional qualifying tournaments Wednesday, and have earned trips to Bangor to compete in the world championship baseball tournament for 14- through 16-year-olds to be held at Mansfield Stadium Aug. 10-16.

Lithuania will return to the SLWS for the second straight year after capturing the EMEA (Europe-Middle East-Africa) regional held at Utenia, Lithuania. The champs went undefeated in the four-team tournament, capped off by a 12-2 victory over the KMC American Little League of Germany in the title game.

Lithuania advanced to the final by topping CSS Calarasi Little League of Romania 9-0, Den Bosch Little League of the Netherlands 10-3 and the German champions 16-8 in pool play.

Lithuania outscored its four EMEA opponents by a combined 47-13, and hopes to maintain that offensive strength in the SLWS. Last year, the Lithuanians scored just four runs while going 0-4 during pool play in Bangor.

The Lithuanians will play their first 2008 SLWS game against the U.S. East champions at 5:30 p.m. on Sunday, Aug. 10. Both of those teams compete in Pool B along with champions from Latin America, U.S. Central and U.S. Southwest.

EMEA champions are just 4-20 in SLWS games since the event moved to Bangor in 2002. Teams from Moscow, Russia, went 1-3 and 2-2 in 2002 and 2003 before the EMEA and Asia-Pacific champions switched pools in 2004. Since then, EMEA is 1-15, with Tbilisi, Georgia, posting the only win with a 2-1 upset over Latin America winner Santiago Veraguas, Panama, in 2005.

Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2004 and Brussels, Belgium, in 2006 both went winless in Pool B.

Asia-Pacific champions are 7-17 in pool play since 2002, but 7-9 since being switched to Pool A, where they compete against the U.S. South, West, Canada and host Maine District 3.

The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands went 2-2 in pool play last August but lost out on advancing to the semifinals in a three-way tiebreaker with U.S. South and Canada – despite a 5-4 pool win over U.S. South representative Cartersville, Ga., the eventual 2007 SLWS champion.

This year’s three-team Asia-Pacific tournament couldn’t have been more balanced. Each team – the Philippines, CNMI and Guam – finished pool play with a 1-1 record, with the Philippines and CNMI advancing to Thursday’s final based on a defensive run differential tiebreaker. That was close, too, with the Philippines allowing 13 runs in three games compared to 14 for CNMI and 15 for Guam.

The Philippines, which defeated CNMI 11-7 in the opening day of pool play, edged the same team 7-6 in Thursday’s championship game to advance to the SLWS for the third time since the tournament has been played in Bangor. The Philippines went 0-4 in 2002 and 1-3 in 2006.

The Asia-Pacific champions will play their first game of the 2008 SLWS against the U.S. West champion at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 10.

The next participant in this year’s Senior League World Series will be determined July 19 in the Latin America championship game to be played at St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.

The Maine District 3 champion will be crowned either July 22 or 23, with the remaining six teams to earn their tickets to Bangor in early August.

eclark@bangordailynews.net

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