BANGOR – Coming into the Senior League World Series, Ralph Hall’s LaSalle, Ontario, team had won with defense and pitching.

The highest-scoring game they played in was 6-0 and they won the Series opener 1-0.

So after losing a 12-10 game in which they had 14 hits Monday, Hall wasn’t sure which team would show up for Tuesday afternoon’s tilt with European champ Moscow.

Turns out, it was a little bit of both.

LaSalle rode a solid effort on the mound and at the plate by starting pitcher Shane Byrne and a four-run fourth inning to an 8-3 victory over the Russian team at a simmering, sun-drenched Mansfield Stadium.

“I think we had to kind of grind it out and try to sneak out a win after being down from yesterday,” Hall said. “It was good to come back.”

LaSalle, now 2-1 in Series play, will take on U.S. West champ San Pedro, Calif., Wednesday at 10 a.m. Moscow, now 0-2, will meet Bangor at 5 p.m.

After Moscow pushed across the game’s first run in the top of the fourth courtesy of a Sergei Karmushov double and one-out RBI single by Sergey Zitarev, Canada scored four in the bottom of the inning.

Mark Metylynsky and Vince Santia had back-to-back singles to lead off and Metylynsky scored on Byrne’s sacrifice fly. After a flyout, Jason Lauzon singled and Jarrod Pandolfo belted an RBI single. An infield fielding error allowed the third run to score and a balk brought home the fourth.

“Yesterday, we had problems with the bat. So today we don’t have problems with the bat, we have problems with defense … Just one bad inning,” said Moscow manager Andrey Selivanov. “When they scored four runs, it was a couple mistakes and I think they just lose their minds. I don’t know what’s going on.”

Byrne added an RBI single in the fifth after throwing 53 pitches over four innings of seven-hit ball and allowing one earned run. Metylynsky came on in relief to allow three hits and two runs in three innings for a save.

“It was hard to get started, but I got stronger through the innings,” said Byrne. “My curveball was working better than usual, so I used it to set up the fastball a lot more.”

Moscow pulled within 4-3 and then 6-3 after scoring two runs in the fifth on Sergei Karmushov’s two-out, two-run double to left center.

Two more insurance runs by Canada in the sixth all but iced the game.

LASALLE, ONTARIO 8, MOSCOW, RUSSIA 3

Moscow (0-2) LaSalle (2-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Aizatouline, lf 1 0 0 0 Dufour, ss 4 0

Piliya, lf 3 0 2 0 Charbonneau,lf-cf 4 0

Kondrashov, lf 0 0 0 0 Pukay, 2b 4 1

Maxiakov, p-ss 3 1 1 0 Metylynsky, cf-p 0

Kornev, cf-p 4 1 1 0 Santia, c 3 0 1

Shabanov, 3b 3 0 0 0 Byrne, p-rf 2 0 2

Chtcherbakov, 1b 3 0 0 0 Vandelinder, rf 2 0

Karmushov, c 4 1 3 2 Micallef, lf 1 0 0

Tokarev, ss-cf 3 0 1 0 Edwards, lf 1 0

Maxiakov, rf 0 0 0 0 Moses, 3b 0 0 0

Zitarev, rf 3 0 2 1 Lauzon, 3b 2 1 0

Maksin, 2b 3 0 0 0 Pandolfo, 1b 3 1 1

Totals 30 3 10 3 Totals 28 8 12 5

Moscow 000 120 0 ? 3

Canada 000 422 x ? 8

E?Shabanov, Tokarev; Dufour, Moses; LOB?Moscow 9; Canada 8; 2B?Karmushov 2; Pandolfo; 3B?Pukay; DP?Shabanov-Maksin-Chtcherbakov; Pukay-Dufour-Pandolfo, Lauzon-Pandolfo; S?Byrne; SF?Byrne, Santia; SB?Piliya; Dufour

Moscow IP H R ER BB SO

Maxiakov (L) 5 1/3 12 8 6 2 5

Kornev 2/3 0 0 0 2 0

LaSalle IP H R ER BB SO

Byrn (W) 4 7 1 1 1 2

Metylynsky (S) 3 3 2 1 2 1

BK? Maxiakov 2; T? 1:45; ATT? 250 (est.)