East Lyme — From the very first pitch Thursday, Waterford showed that it had things under control.

Literally.

Jared Burrows squared up and blasted a solo home run that nearly cleared a tree to deep left center on the opening pitch of the game to give Waterford a lead it would never relinquish en route to a 15-4 victory over East Lyme in the first game of the District 10 Little League (11-12) baseball championship series.

"The kids can definitely swing the bat," Waterford manager Tim Burrows said. "They had a great day today."

And the hits just kept coming.

Anthony Tonucci homered in the fourth inning. Then Ryan Bakken in the fifth. Then Robert Zawacki and Bakken again in the sixth.

"It was big," Burrows said. "The kids get off on it, so it's great."

Waterford hit a total of five home runs, putting East Lyme, which had yet to trail in the tournament, in a new and daunting position.

"Against a quality team like this where they have thirteen quality hitters ... you have to give maximum effort on every play, every pitch," East Lyme manager Jamie Chambers said.

East Lyme answered in the beginning. Following Jared Burrow's opening home run, East Lyme tied the score after Dan Allard's double knocked in Alex Fraser, who scored twice on the night.

And when Waterford tacked on two more runs in the top of the second inning, East Lyme was right there to respond. Nolan Connolly hit a two-run single off the top of the first baseman's glove to tie the game at three.

Even though Waterford had not allowed any runs in the tournament coming into Thursday, Chambers knew his team could hit and score some runs.

"We are a talented team. We hit, we hit. And when we have momentum, we really can be in games," he said.

But Waterford never allowed East Lyme to gain that momentum, and a flurry of East Lyme errors didn't help its attempts at a comeback.

"The first pitch of the game was a home run, we can deal with that," Chambers said. " ... Once you start making errors and guys start flying around the bases, we just can't keep up with that."

It all happened so fast.

After Tonucci homered in the fourth to make it 4-3 Waterford, Luke Sokolski knocked in Bakken on a chopper that pulled the first baseman off the bag and Ryan O'Connell walked. Ryan Salvador hit a shot up the middle that sent Sokolski home, and Trey Brennan singled into right field to extend Waterford's lead to 7-3.

"We just put 'em in the right spots and let 'em go play," Tim Burrows said. "(We) try not to get in the way."

After Waterford added three more runs in the fifth to make it 10-3, East Lyme's Will Kane, who opened the bottom of the inning with a double, scored on a wild pitch.

East Lyme had cut the lead back down to six, but never got any closer.

"They're very sound defensively ... they made very few mistakes," Chambers said. "The way to beat that team is you really have to hit."

And hitting is what Waterford did best, continuing to flash its firepower in the top of the sixth. Two more homers, five more runs, and a whole lot of smiles.

"They're just playing baseball, having fun, trying to learn, trying to win every pitch," Burrows said. "That's all we try to do, win every single pitch. And wherever that takes us, we'll see how far we can go."