BANGOR, Maine — In the Senior League West regional tournament, the 15- and 16-year-olds from Pearl City outscored its opponents by a whopping 80-9.

In their opening game of the Senior League World Series at Mansfield Stadium yesterday, the U.S. West champs kept swinging hot bats en route to a six-inning 21-4 romp of Asia-Pacific representative Makati City, Philippines.

Pearl City scored 19 of its runs in two innings with a seven-run outburst in the top of the third and a 12-run surge, during which the team sent 18 to the plate, in the top half of the sixth.

Getting that all-important first victory was huge, according to Pearl City manager Gary Nakamoto.

"Every time you win that first game, all the butterflies go away," he said.

Of the 14 players who got to bat for Pearl City, all but four drove in at least one run.

Duane Kiyota went 4 for 4 with three RBIs and scored three runs. He had an RBI triple in the third and two-run single in the sixth.

Cody Sugitaya finished 2 for 3 with a two-run single and RBI single.

Pearl City starter Jason Rasa pitched five consistent innings, allowing two earned runs on four hits while striking out two and walking three.

"He didn't have his good stuff today, he was struggling a little bit," Nakamoto said. "He had enough to just get by. Our pitching has to come through."

Nakamoto also noted that his club can't soar too high after the convincing win — there is still a lot of baseball to be played.

"It's only one game, and every game counts," he said.

Pearl City was patient at the plate, making the Makati City pitchers work, and the pitchers were wild, as five of them combined to walk eight Pearl City batters.

"We told the kids to be patient up there. The (Makati City) pitchers, they didn't throw strikes, we sat on a lot of balls," Nakamoto said.

Pearl City hitters did a fairly good job of showing patience in the batter's box, drawing walks and stealing bases, which Nakamoto said is one of the team's strengths.

"We do a lot of running, we have good speed on the bases," he said. "If everything comes together, we can go far."