QUINCY, Mass. — The Nederland 14-year-old All Stars hammered Syracuse, N.Y. 13-0 in their first round game of the Babe Ruth World Series regular tournament bracket on Thursday night.

With the victory, Nederland improves to 12-1 on the summer and is 4-1 at the WS. Nederland, which is the Southwest representative of the tournament, scored six runs in the second inning, one run in the fourth and five runs in

the fifth.

Meanwhile, Trent Fontenot, who was named the game's MVP, only allowed one hit in the contest through his five innings of work. He was the winning pitcher, struck out four and allowed just two walks. Kohl Lasell tossed the final two innings. He allowed zero hits, no walks and struck out two.

Texas outhit New York 12-1. Fontenot had two doubles in the contest with one RBI. Stephen Schlett led the way in runs batted in, however. Schlett was 2-for-5 with a triple, scored twice and had three RBI.

Hunter Knox was 1-for-3 with three runs scored and one RBI, Jordan Wood was 1-for-1 with two RBI, Daniel Sparrow was 2-for-3 with three runs scored and one RBI, Gerran Freeman had a hit, Jacob Pitts was 2-for-4 with a double

and a RBI and Brett Brown had one hit as well.

Nederland head coach Steven Pitts said that his team's performance on Thursday night was their best of the tournament.

"Our pitchers threw strikes, we hit the ball and you can't ask for a better result. It was our best game by far," he said.

Texas drew a No. 2 seed for the regular bracket after posting a 3-1 record in the National Pool. The Southwest will meet Tallahasse, Fla. today at 7 p.m. CST for its next game. Tallahassee drew the No. 1 seed in the American Pool

and has not lost since its first game in pool play.

Tallahassee is also the returning champs, so to speak, as its team is compiled of the same unit that won the 13-year-old WS a year ago.

"We know it's going to be tough," Pitts said. "Most of their games have been lopsided and we are definitely going to have to step it up. We know what it's going to a test. Hopefully we stay hot."

Two more wins is all Nederland needs to become this year's champs. A loss, however, will send the boys home as the tournament became one-loss elimination once the regular bracket started on Thursday.

Youngstown, Ohio, and Norwalk, Conn., meet at 5 p.m. today for the other semifinal matchup. Youngstown and Norwalk met in pool play with Ohio being the victor.