QUINCY, Mass. — The Nederland 14-year-old All Stars lit up Youngstown, Ohio for eight runs in the third inning of Wednesday afternoon's 10-5 victory in the National Pool of the Babe Ruth World Series.

With the win, Nederland improves to 11-1 for the summer and 3-1 in pool play. Nederland, which is the Southwest representative at the tournament, also claimed a No. 2 in the regular bracket which commences today.

Nederland will play at 7 p.m. CST. The Texas team needs three more wins to claim the World Series trophy. The remainder of the tournament is one-loss elimination, however.

Texas head coach Steven Pitts said his team would meet the No. 3 from the American Pool in its first game.

In Wednesday's win, Nederland handed Youngstown its first loss in the tournament. This came just a day after Nederland fell 2-1 in nine innings to Norwalk, Conn.

Pitts credited the turnaround to better defense and a more aggressive approach on offense.

"We opened things up a little," he said. "We are typically a basic team. Typically, we just hit and move up to the next base. But today, we laid down a few bunts, we were more aggressive on the bases and that forced them (Ohio) into some errors — that allowed us to score some runs."

Pitts added that he was really proud of the way his team bounced back from its first loss.

About the errors, Youngstown committed seven. That equaled the number of hits Nederland collected for the game. The Ohio team produced 10.

Hunter Knox started for Texas but allowed three earned runs in the third inning. He went just 2.1 innings, struck out two and allowed five hits. David Conley went the remaining 4.2 innings, picked up the win, struck out three, allowed five hits and two unearned runs.

Knox, however, was named the game's MVP as he went 2-for-3 at the plate with two RBI and three runs scored. Stephen Schlett also went 2-for-3. Schlett had three RBI and scored a run.

David Sparrow, who missed Tuesday's game with a bruised shin, was back in the starting lineup on Wednesday. He went 2-for-4 and scored a run. Conley accounted for Nederland's seventh hit. He was 1-for-3 with a double and one RBI.

Nederland was down 3-1 going into the bottom of the third before breaking out for eight runs. The Southwest added another run in the fifth. Meanwhile, Ohio scored three in the third, one in the fourth and one more in the seventh inning.

Pitts said he feels as if Nederland is as good as any team left in the tournament.

"I thought our pool was more competitve (than the American) but I know anything is possible," he said. "Any of these teams could get hot and win this thing. Hopefully, we're that team." — Cody Pastorella