BANGOR – The 2004 Senior League World Series got off to a sloppy start Sunday in more ways than one.

After rain from Hurricane Charley forced a 11/2-hour delay, the U.S. South and U.S. West representatives looked nervous, combining for seven errors, six walks, three hit batters and a few mental miscues.

But Dade City Little League of Dade City, Fla., managed to overcome all that. Robbie Shields scored the winning run in the top of the seventh inning as the South representative earned a 6-5 win over El Rio Little League of Oxnard, Calif., in a Pool A game to open the World Series.

Both teams play again today. Dade City will face Canada entry Whalley Little League of Surrey, British Columbia, at 5 p.m. El Rio will play at 10 a.m. against Saipan Little League of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Asia-Pacific representative.

Shields put Dade City ahead for good, taking advantage of two errors and smart baserunning.

He reached base on a throwing error to lead off the inning, then stole second and advanced to third on a Jaime Cruz single. Shields scored on another throwing error to make it 6-4.

“When you play this level one error can make all the difference and that one run was huge,” Dade City manager Jeff Maggard said.

El Rio had five errors, the most that the West champ has made in a game during district, state and regional play, according to manager Pancho Tinoco.

“Every single error scored and that hurt,” he said. “We just had a bad day playing defense. We can’t make errors in this type of venue.”

Dade City would use the two-run cushion in the bottom of the seventh as El Rio got a run back when Diego Larios walked after El Rio opened with a groundout. Larios advanced on a wild pitch and scored on a Ryan Hotchkiss two-out single. Dade City starter Dominic Brown induced a groundout to end the game.

Dade City came up with a big defensive play in the sixth. El Rio’s Geoff Ostrove led off with a ground-ball single but catcher Zach Maggard and shortstop Shields combined to throw out Ostrove at second on a steal attempt.

Brown earned the win for Dade City despite struggling with his control.

The 6-foot-5 lefty said he fouled a pitch off his right foot in his first at-bat of the game. Brown said the injury meant he couldn’t locate his curve and changeup so he stuck with his fastball and knuckleball.

“Those [pitches] got me through,” he said minutes before getting a bag of ice for his foot. “When the foul ball went off my foot it was hurting bad. It bothered me a lot. But I had to get that out of my mind the last inning.”

Brown had seven strikeouts, four walks and hit three batters. The foot injury didn’t seem to bother Brown at the plate. He singled twice and scored two runs.

U.S. SOUTH 6, U.S. WEST 5

Dade City, Fla. (1-0) Oxnard, Calif. (0-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Brown, p 3 2 2 0 Navarro, 2b-ss-2b 3 0

Shields, ss 3 3 2 1 Larios, 1b-2b-1b 2 0

Cruz, 2b 3 0 1 1 Segovia, ss-3b-ss 3 0

Maggard, c 3 0 2 1 Hotchkiss, cf 3 0 1

Pullin, pr-lf 0 0 0 0 Escobar, lf 4 1

Roe, 3b 3 0 1 0 Ostrove, 3b 2 1 0

Juarez, 1b 4 0 0 0 Ramirez, 1b 0 0 0

Mathis, rf-cf 3 1 1 0 Oropeza, pr-rf 2 0

Hedman, lf 2 0 0 0 Navarro, rf-pr 0 0 0

Roberts, lf-rf 0 0 0 0 Espinoza, c 3 1

Capehart, cf 3 0 0 0 Regalado, p 2 0 0

Wells, lf 0 0 0 0

Totals 28 6 9 3 Totals 24 5 7 3

U.S. South 210 200 1 ? 6

U.S. West 300 100 1 ? 5

E?Cruz, Roe; Navarro 2, Escobar, Ostrove, Ramirez; LOB?South 6, West 6; 2B?Shields, Roe; 3B?Shields; DP?South, West 2; S?Hedman; SF?Cruz; SB?Shields; Escobar

U.S. South IP H R ER BB SO

Brown (1-0) 7 7 5 1 4 7

U.S. West IP H R ER BB SO

Regalado (0-1) 7 9 6 3 2 4

HBP?Segovia, Ramirez, Hotchkiss by Brown; WP?Brown 2; T?2:13; ATT?300 (est.)