Ottumwa, Iowa — A pair of two-out hits gave Waterford just the start it needed Friday night.

Host Ottumwa was on the verge of working out of a first-inning jam until Luke Sokolski and Ryan O'Connell delivered back-to-back RBI doubles.

That gave the New England champs a quick 2-0 lead and pitcher Ryan Bakken did the rest, working out a trouble throughout six solid innings as Waterford remained unbeaten in the Babe Ruth 13-year-old World Series with an 8-4 victory over Ottumwa.

"Their pitcher (Mitch Wood) was pretty good," Waterford manager Dave Laffey said. "I don't think they expected us to put two runs up in the first on him. They walked a lot of guys (10) and we were aggressive. We're going to run until they throw us out and they didn't throw us out."

Waterford was successful in all seven of its stolen-base attempts.

"I'm always a little nervous before I see a team," Laffey said, "but now we know we can play with anybody here."

Waterford improved to 2-0 in American Division pool play and has the day off on Saturday before playing the third of its four pool-play games at 6:30 p.m. Sunday against Mifflin County (Pa.), which defeated Eau Claire (Wisc.) in its opener Saturday, 4-3 in eight innings.

Laffey said Connor Podeszwa will start Sunday's game.

"The kids know that we're a good team." Laffey said. "If we keep hitting we'll be fine. With two games to go we're in good shape. We've given up more runs than I would have liked to, though, since that's a tiebreaker.''

Waterford was also opportunistic, breaking the game open in the fourth by scoring four runs on just one hit, scoring its first run on a passed ball, the second when Podeszwa walked with the bases loaded, the third when Trey Brennan raced home on a wild pitch, and the final run on an error.

Bakken, meanwhile, squired out of a couple of jams, stranding a runner at third in the third, watching his teammates turn a double play an inning later with two Ottumwa runners on bases.

The hosts eventually got to Bakken when Colton McKinnon singled home two runs in the fifth, but Waterford came right back with two of its own in the top of the sixth to take command, 8-2, the first run scoring when Ben Jerome walked with the bases loaded and the second on Matt Sanford's infield out.

Waterford finished with only six hits — three by O'Connell — while Bakken allowed only one earned run over six innings with one walk and three strikeouts before Sokolski came on in relief to finish things off in the seventh.

Laffey said his team will take part in a "parade of champions" Saturday morning, "then they're free to do what they want. Some of the kids want to go to the Field of Dreams field (in Dyersville) about and hour and a half away."

Laffey, meanwhile, is likely to pass after one long bus ride already, admitting, "Corn is all we saw from Kansas City to Ottumwa.''