BANGOR – The Maine District 3 Senior League baseball team was able to hang for a while, but not before U.S. West pitcher Eric Navarro shut down the Bangor squad en route to a 13-5 win for the El Rio Little League team of Oxnard, Calif., in the final game of pool play in the Senior League World Series Thursday night at Mansfield Stadium.

The game was called in the sixth inning due to rain but was officially five innings. There was also a 20-minute delay in the second inning because of lightning.

Neither team had anything to play for as pairings had already been set for Friday’s semifinals. El Rio (3-1), the No. 2 seed in Pool A, will face Pool B No. 1 Latin America today at 2:30 p.m. Bangor was 0-3 entering the game and already out of the playoff picture.

“We just wanted the guys to come out and have fun today and end the season on a positive note,” Bangor manager Barrett Dionne said. “We did, but we lost. We had fun and that’s all that matters.”

Bangor rallied in the bottom of the first after El Rio went up 3-0 in the top of the inning. Ben Silver hit an RBI double and Alex Gallant added an RBI single. Gallant eventually scored on a fielding error.

El Rio added three more runs in the top of the second and again Bangor responded. Tom Crews reached on a fielder’s choice and advanced when Ben Estabrook walked. After a flyout, both Crews and Estabrook moved up when Gallant walked. Both Crews and Estabrook eventually scored on wild pitches by El Rio reliever David Escobar to cut the lead to 6-5.

After Escobar gave up two two-out walks in a row, Navarro came in with runners on first and second. He walked the third straight Bangor batter to load the bases but redeemed himself, striking out the final batter of the inning. Bangor didn’t have a baserunner for the rest of the game.

Navarro not only pitched 3 1/3 innings of hitless, scoreless relief, but he also scored three runs, singled twice, walked twice, stole three bases – two in the first inning – and drove in a run for good measure.

“They’re a well-disciplined team,” Dionne said.

El Rio added one run in the third and two more each in the fourth and fifth. The West team had another in the sixth but according to Little League rules the score reverts to what it was at the end of the last complete inning.

El Rio had 13 hits in the game.

“We wanted to work on our hitting,” said Navarro, who led all six World Series teams with nine stolen bases on 10 attempts. “We haven’t been swinging the bats as well as we could be. Hopefully this will get us back in our groove.”

Dionne said other than the errors Bangor made – the team had three alone against El Rio – he was proud of the way the host team performed this week.

“We made a lot of mental mistakes and there were a couple of games we shouldn’t have lost,” Dionne said. “We made a lot of errors but other than that I’m happy.”

U.S. WEST 13, BANGOR 5

Oxnard, Calif. (3-1) Bangor (0-4)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

E. Navarro, ss-p 2 3 2 1 Crews, cf-rf 3 0

Larios, 2b-1b 2 4 1 0 Estabrook, ss 2 0

Regalado, lf 3 1 2 4 B. Silver, c 3 1 1

Hotchkiss, cf 3 1 2 3 Gallant, p-lf 2 0

Ostrove, 3b 3 0 0 0 J. Silver, rf 1 0 0

Ramirez, 3b 1 0 0 0 Clifford, cf-rf 1 0 0

A. Navarro, p 1 0 1 1 Hackett, 3b 1 0

Escobar, p-rf 1 1 1 0 Russell, lf 2 0

Barroso, rf 2 0 1 0 Barron, rf-p 1 0 0

Oropeza, rf-2b 0 0 0 0 Cox, 1b 2 0 0

Espinoza, c 3 2 2 0 Webb, 1b 0 0 0

Segovia, 1b-2b 3 1 1 1 Vanidestine, 2b 1 0

Jones, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 24 13 13 10 Totals 19 5 3 1

U.S. West 331 33 ? 13

Bangor 320 00 ? 5

E?Ostrove; B. Silver, Hackett, Russell; LOB?U.S. West 5, Bangor 5; 2B?B. Silver; 3B?Hotchkiss; SF?Regalado, Hotchkiss; SB?E. Navarro 3, Regalado, Espinoza; B. Silver

U.S. West IP H R ER BB SO

A. Navarro 1* 3 4 3 1 0

Escobar 2/3 0 1 1 3 0

E. Navarro (W,1-0) 3 1/3 0 0 0 1 3

Bangor IP H R ER BB SO

Gallant (L,0-1) 3 6 7 4 3 2

Barron 2 7 6 6 3 1

HBP?Oropeza by Gallant; WP?Escobar 3, A. Navarro; T?2:00; ATT?1,000 (est.)

*faced one batter in the second