WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - Fighting a bad case of World Series jitters and a tougher case of Tampa pitching, there would be no comeback this time for Rapid City's Canyon Lake All-Stars.

An eight-run first inning and no-hit pitching gave Florida's Citrus Park Little League all the boost it needed to open the Little League World Series with a 10-0 win over Rapid City on Friday at Volunteer Stadium. The game, nationally televised on ESPN, ended after four innings because of the 10-run mercy rule.

During their run to the Midwest Region title and a first-ever South Dakota berth in the Little League World Series, Canyon Lake had battled back from an

8-0 deficit en route to a 9-8 win over Iowa, and later overcame a 12-0 first inning deficit to Missouri a game eventually won by Missouri 13-12 in extra innings.

But this time, against Southeast Region champion Tampa, the competition was too stiff and the nerves too shaky.

Canyon Lake starting pitcher Tanner Simons struggled from the outset to find the strike zone, walking three and hitting a batter during a traumatic first inning. Citrus Park sent 12 batters to the plate and loaded the bases twice. Before the game even seemed to get started, the Rapid City Little Leaguers were down 8-0 and had yet to come to the plate.

"I think we had a case of the nerves, both at the plate, and in the field," said Canyon Lake coach Steve Nolan.

Tampa's four hits included a triple from Wyatt Reid to the wall, which scored three runs, and a double from Kevin Merrill that also plated three runs.

Citrus Park added two more runs in the second inning to close out the scoring. Reid singled and scored on a double from Levi Gilcrease, who later scored on a sacrifice fly from Danny Lastra.

Simons eventually settled in, retiring eight of the last ten batters he faced and finishing with six strikouts, but the first-inning damage was too much to overcome.

"We decided to leave him in and let him battle through it, and he did a wonderful job coming back in the second, third and fourth innings, but by then, unfortunately, it was a little too late," Nolan said.

The big early lead gave Citrus Park manager Joe McGuire the luxury of saving his pitchers for another day.

Gilcrease, Darren Miller and Merrell each threw less than 20 pitches and combined to keep Canyon Lake hitless.

By Little League pitch count rules, each would be available to work today, but Florida doesn't play again until Sunday, when they face West Region champion Waipahu, Hawaii.

"I was hoping we'd score a lot in the first inning. That's what we usually do," McGuire said. "Kevin's our No. 2 pitcher, so when he gave up that walk, I decided to make the change. I wanted to keep them all under 20 pitches."

"They definitely had solid pitching," said Canyon Lake coach Nolan. "They can hit their spots really well and keeping us off balance, with the slider, curve ball, change-up and fastball, to keep us guessing at the plate."

Rapid City's biggest threat came in the second inning when Jesse Riddle reached on an error, and advanced to second on another error that put T.J. Nolan on first on the fielder's choice. Bill Hendricks' walk loaded the bases.

That's when McGuire brought in Merrell to get the final out.

Merrell and Reid each had two hits and three RBI's for Tampa, which ended the game with eight hits.

Rapid City must now regroup quickly to face New England champion Shelton, Conn, today at 1:30 p.m. MDT.

"They are a focused group of kids. We'll do what we can do to get them built back up and get their confidence where it needs to be," Nolan said.

"We were focused, but we were tight. We just need to loosen it up a little bit."