CADE ZIELSTORFF of the Mariners slides into third just ahead of the tag by Phillies third baseman Bryce Colaizzi.

The Phillies rallied for seven runs in the final two innings Tuesday and went on to beat the Mariners, 8-2, in Game 1 of the Benicia Little League Majors World Series at Community Park.

The Phillies, looking for their second World Series championship in the past three years, trailed 2-1 after four innings but outscored the Mariners 7-0 down the stretch to move one win away from the title in the best-of-3 Series.

“This takes all the pressure off,” said Phillies manager Derek Trammell. “Now we just need to win one of the next two.”

“We played hard,” said Shane Irwin, who will start on the hill for the Phillies for today’s Game 2. “We don’t get down when we’re behind.”

The Phillies (15-9) opened the scoring in the top of the third inning off Mariners starter Jack Castillo, who was making his first pitching appearance of the season. Justin Palacios walked with one out, stole second and ended up scoring on a RBI single by Andrew McLarty to make it 1-0.

The Mariners (14-10) – who upset the Red Sox last Saturday to win the American League championship – answered right back with two runs in the bottom of the third. T.J. Valentine singled home R.J. Cabral to tie it, then scored on a dropped third strike to make it 2-1.

But the Phillies wouldn’t be denied. A two-run double by Palacios and singles by McLarty, Dylan Trammell and Bryce Colaizzi led to four runs in the top of the fifth. Singles by Colaizzi and McLarty and two Mariners errors led to three insurance runs in the sixth.

“We’re the kind of team that gets a bunch of runs in one or two innings,” coach Trammell said. “I don’t know why it happens that way. But we stayed calm, dug in and fought back.”

“We kind of fell apart in those last couple of innings,” said Mariners manager Al Zielstorff, whose team gave up five unearned runs. “But you have to give the Phillies credit. They’ve been scoring runs like that all year and they earned all their runs.”

Phillies starter Dylan Trammell pitched five-plus innings to earn the win and is available for Saturday’s Game 3 if necessary. Irwin mopped things up by retiring all three batters he faced in the sixth. Irwin will start Game 2 today as the Phillies look for the first World Series sweep since 2010

“We’re confident, but we don’t want to be too confident,” Irwin said.

“I think we’ll take this to a Game 3,” said Zielstorff, who will start Connor Maio on the hill today. “We’ve got our No. 1 pitcher going and we’ll see what happens.”

The Phillies won the World Series in 2013 while the Mariners are looking for their first World Series title since 2012.

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