BANGOR, Maine — Pearl City's run in the Little League Senior World Series for 15- and 16-year-olds ended one win short of a championship yesterday.

Urbandale, Iowa, left-hander Jared Norris pitched a three-hitter and negated a Pearl City running game that had stolen 16 bases in its five previous games to lead the U.S. Central representatives to a 7-2 victory over the U.S. West champions in the tournament final at Mansfield Stadium.

Pearl City rallied from an early 2-0 deficit with two runs in the bottom of the second, but were shut out on two hits the rest of the way while Urbandale pounded out 14 hits, including three in a three-run fifth to take control.

"It was a good ride all the way through to this game, and the kids played their hearts out," said Pearl City manager Gary Nakamoto, whose team finished the tournament with a 5-1 record. "Today we just were a little flat. We didn't hit the ball and made some errors, and our pitcher didn't throw his 'A' game.

"But I give Iowa a lot of credit. They hit the ball well and executed well."

Norris struck out three and walked three in a 108-pitch performance, but just as important to his success was his ability to keep Pearl City from using its speed on the basepaths.

Pearl City stole just one base — by Rorry Nakayama after he drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the first — while Norris picked off two runners and frequently had others leaning back toward first base.

"He had a good move to first base, and because of that we couldn't take a real big lead," Nakamoto said. "We had a couple of our guys picked off and that hurt us. They stopped us from our running game, but we didn't get on base much anyway."

Urbandale scored single runs in each of the first two innings before Pearl City — which had become one of the more popular teams in this year's field because of its penchant for late-inning comebacks — broke through for its only runs.

Jason Rasa led off the bottom of the second with an infield single and Nainoa Tampos walked before the runners were sacrificed to second and third by Jeffrey Domingo. Rasa scored on a throwing error, then Peter Lee drove home Tampos with a sacrifice fly.

Urbandale regained the lead with a run in the top of the third, and put the game away with three runs in the fifth.

Rasa finished with two singles for Pearl City, while Matthew Tanaid had his team's other hit, also a single.

Shannon Liu pitched into the fifth inning for the Pearl City, allowing 10 hits and three earned runs while striking out four and walking one batter. Ryno Acosta allowed just one run in 2 1/3 innings of relief.

IOWA PEARL CITY

AB R H BI AB R H BI

HOBERG SS 5 2 3 1 NAKAYAMA CF 1 0 0 0

WADDELL C 3 0 1 1 MURAOKA RF 1 0 0 0

SCHUCK 1B 2 1 0 0 ACOSTA SS/P 3 0 0 0

WEEKS 1B 2 0 0 1 LIU P/SS 3 0 0 0

NORRIS P 2 1 2 0 USHIJIMA 1B 3 0 0 0

CONLON 2B 4 0 1 1 RASA 3B 2 1 2 0

RAISCH 3B 5 1 2 1 TAMPOS RF/PH 0 1 0 0

ENGLUND RF/CF 3 1 2 0 DEKNEEF CF/RF 1 0 0 0

COFFEY LF 2 0 0 0 DOMINGO C/PH 1 0 0 0

MILES PH/LF 2 1 1 0 KIYOTA C 1 0 0 0

DAVIS CF 2 0 1 1 LEE LF/PR 0 0 0 1

WATSON PH/RF 2 0 1 1 TANAID LF/PH 2 0 1 0

QUILLOPO 2B 2 0 0 0

SUGITAYA 2B 1 0 0 0

TOTALS 34 7 14 7 TOTALS 21 2 3 1

IOWA (5-1) 111 030 1—7

PEARL CITY (5-1) 020 000 0—2

E—Hoberg, Schuck, Ushijima, Rasa. DP—Pearl City 1. LOB—Iowa 14, Pearl City 4.

2B—Hoberg, Waddell. SB—Hoberg 2, Englund 2, Nakayama. SH—Waddell, Conlon, Englund, Rasa, Domingo. SF—Lee. CS—Liu

Iowa IP H R ER BB SO Norris W, 2-0 7 3 2 1 3 3

PEARL CITY

LIU L, 1-1 4 2/3 10 6 3 1 4

ACOSTA 2 1/3 4 1 1 1 0

WP—Norris, Liu 2. HBP—Norris by Liu, Waddell by Liu, Norris by Liu. BK—Liu.

T—2:06. A—1,300.