BANGOR – Oxnard, Cal. righthander James Segovia said his shoulder was bothering him early in Monday’s Senior League World Series start against the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

In addition, he indicated he couldn’t throw his breaking ball for strikes consistently.

“So I just had to throw fastballs, try to get ahead in the count and let them hit it,” said Segovia who overcame a shaky start to retire 13 of the last 14 hitters he faced to help his team beat CNMI 7-3 at Mansfield Stadium.

Oxnard is 1-1 while CNMI was playing its opener.

“I got stronger as the game went along. I bent my back more,” said Segovia, who allowed four hits and three runs over six innings with three strikeouts and two walks. He threw 62 strikes among his 102 pitches. Just one of the runs off him was earned.

“He threw pretty hard and he had a good junkball [curve], too,” said CNMI lead-off hitter and center fielder Tyrone Omar, who had two of his team’s five singles.

“He was good and we just didn’t hit. We weren’t patient enough to get hits. And they played good defense,” said CNMI pitcher Antoine Allen.

The Asia-Pacific champions built a 3-1 lead but the Californians, winners of the West Regional, took the lead for good with a four-run third-inning rally featuring three two-out, run-scoring hits.

Eric Navarro and Diego Larios walked to open the inning. Navarro stole second and third and Larios stole second.

Navarro scored on a two-out passed ball and David Escobar came off the bench and delivered Larios with an infield single to the shortstop hole.

“I noticed he [Allen] had been throwing first-pitch fastballs so I jumped on it,” said Escobar.

Escobar stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored when Geoff Ostrove poked an opposite-field single to right.

“He put a fastball out over the plate,” said Ostrove, who added that his team didn’t panic when it fell behind 3-1 “because we usually come back late in games.”

David Oropeza followed with a high fly ball triple over right fielder Tom Guerrerro’s head to score Ostrove.

The Californians added a pair of insurance runs in the fourth.

Jacob Regalado walked and Oropeza came on to pinch-run for him.

Navarro singled sharply to right, moving Oropeza to second.

On a pitch in the dirt, Oropeza raced for third and catcher Manny Ada overthew the bag allowing Oropeza to score and Navarro to reach third. Larios greeted reliever Oliver Scharmidal with a looping RBI single to right.

CNMI had taken a 2-0 lead in the first on a one-out error by Regalado, a walk and run-scoring singles by Allen and Franco Flores.

Oxnard got one back in the second on Oropeza’s single, two wild pitches and Ray Espinosa’s grounder to third.

CNMI answered with run in the bottom of second on a hit batsman, a walk and Scharmidal’s sharp two-out single to left center.

Eric Navarro had two hits and four of his team’s seven stolen bases.

“That’s our game plan. We stay aggressive [on the bases],” said Navarro.

Larios, Escobar and Oropeza also had two hits.

U.S. WEST 7, ASIA-PACIFIC 3

Oxnard, Calif. (1-1) CNMI (0-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

E. Navarro, ss 3 2 2 0 Omar, rf 3 0

Larios, 2b 3 1 2 1 Palacios, lf 3 1 0

Segovia, p-rf 4 0 0 0 Mendiola, lf 1 0

Hotchkiss, cf 4 0 0 0 Scharmidal, ss-p 1

Barroso, lf 1 0 0 0 Allen, p-ss 4 0 1

Escobar, lf 3 1 2 1 Taisakan, 1b 3 0 0

Ostrove, 3b 3 1 1 1 Flores, 2b-3b 3 0 1

Ramirez, 3b 0 0 0 0 Ada, 3b-c 3 0 0

Oropeza, rf 2 1 2 1 Concepcion, c 0 1 0

A. Navarro, rf-p 2 0 0 0 Suares, 2b 2 0

Espinoza, c 3 0 1 1 Guerrero, rf 1 0 0

Regalado, 1b 2 1 0 0 Tenorio, rf 2 0 0

Totals 30 7 10 5 Totals 27 3 5 3

U.S. West 014 200 0 ? 7

Asia-Pacific 210 000 0 ? 3

E?Regalado; Scharmidal, Ada; LOB?U.S. West 6, Asia-Pacific 7; 2B?Escobar; 3B?Oropeza; DP?Asia-Pacific 1; SB?E. Navarro 4, Larios 2, Escobar; Omar 2

U.S. West IP H R ER BB SO

Segovia (W,1-0) 6 4 3 1 2 3

A. Navarro (S,1) 1 1 0 0 1 0

Asia-Pacific IP H R ER BB SO

Allen (L,0-1) 3 6 7 6 3 4

Scharmidal 4 4 0 0 1 0

HBP?Concepcion by Segovia, WP?Allen 4; Segovi; PB?Concepcion; T?2:13; ATT?100 (est.)