BANGOR – Neither team really had the bats smoking in the blistering heat of Wednesday morning’s Senior League World Series game at Mansfield Stadium.

The difference was made on defense, and in that area, the team from San Pedro, Calif., bested LaSalle, Ontario, at its own game.

LaSalle committed a very uncharacteristic six errors and San Pedro capitalized on them with three unearned runs as it posted a 5-1 victory and clinched a spot in Friday’s single-elimination semifinal round.

“We had too many errors. That’s the whole story,” said Canada coach Ralph Hall. “That’s a good team and you have to play error free against them, so I’m disappointed in that respect.”

LaSalle finishes round robin play at 2-2 in their first Series appearance since 1997 while San Pedro moved to 3-0 with a game against Bangor Thursday at 5 p.m.

San Pedro was frustrated early on as the team loaded the bases with one out in the first, but only managed to plate one run on Daniel Stephenson’s RBI single.

The first two batters then reached in the second and advance to second and third before LaSalle starter Jason Lauzon escaped the jam with a popup to himself and a strikeout. The third was more of the same as San Pedro again loaded the bases with one out, but squeaked home just one run on Grant Harper’s RBI single.

While San Pedro was getting a bit frustrated, starting pitcher Daniel Lebetsamer was holding LaSalle’s offense in check by retiring 12 of the first 14 batters through the first four innings.

“I usually just try an throw strikes early on because I know my fastball will get harder and better as the game goes on,” Lebetsamer said. “My fastball was going good, but I couldn’t really throw my curve, so I had to rely on my defense a lot.”

LaSalle finally scored in the fifth after loading the bases on a single, walk, and hit batter. Lebetsamer then gave way to Steve Taylor, who notched an out at the plate on a fielder’s choice grounder. LaSalle scored on Anthony Dufour’s fielder’s choice grounder, but Taylor struck out the next batter to escape further damage.

SAN PEDRO, CALIF. 5, LASALLE, ONTARIO 1

San Pedro (3-0) LaSalle (2-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Garcia, 2b 3 0 0 0 Dufour, ss 2 0 1

Lebetsamer,p-3b-lf 3 1 0 0 Pukay, 2b 3 0

Sindicich, cf-p 3 0 0 0 Metylynsky, cf 3 0

Whitt, cf 3 0 0 0 Santia, c 3 0 0

Stephenson, lf-3b 4 1 2 1 Byrne, rf 3 0

Luna, lf 0 0 0 0 Vandelinder, lf 0 0 0

Taylor, 3b-p-1b 3 2 2 0 Lauzon, p 3 0

Cuneo, c 2 0 1 0 Moses, 3b 1 1 0

Luera, c 2 0 1 1 Edwards, lf 1 0 0

Harper, rf-cf 4 0 2 1 Charbonneau,lf-rf 0

Accetta, 1b 3 1 1 1 Pandolfo, 1b 3 0 0

Solis, p-rf 1 0 0 0

Dorado, ss 3 0 0 0

a-Lomonaco 1 0 0 0

Totals 35 5 9 4 Totals 23 1 3 1

a-flied out for Dorado in sixth

San Pedro 101 001 2 ? 5

Canada 000 010 0 ? 1

E? Garcia; Dufour 2, Lauzon 2, Moses, Pandolfo; LOB? San Pedro 10; LaSalle 5; 2B? Taylor, Harper; S? Dorado; SF? Lebetsamer

San Pedro IP H R ER BB SO

Lebetsamer (W) 4 3 1 1 2 2

Taylor 1 0 0 0 0 1

Solis 1 0 0 0 0 1

Sindicich 1 0 0 0 1 2

LaSalle IP H R ER BB SO

Lauzon (L) 7 9 5 2 2 1

HBP? Taylor (Lauzon); Charbonneau (Lebetsamer) WP? Lebetsamer; T? 2:03; ATT? 156