BANGOR – A sense of urgency guided Maracaibo, Venezuela, in its final game of Pool B play Thursday at the Senior League Baseball World Series.

Beat undefeated Freehold Township, N.J., and earn the pool’s top seed for Friday’s semifinals.

Lose, and enter the often mysterious world of the multiple team tie-breaker, leaving its fortunes for advancement in the hands of others.

“For us, this was the final,” said Maracaibo pitcher-third baseman Renzo Urdaneta.

That sense of urgency ultimately prevailed, thanks to the pitching of Urdaneta and Jose Ramon Gonzalez and two unearned runs in the ninth inning that lifted the Latin America champs to a 4-2 victory over the U.S. East representatives at Mansfield Stadium.

Maracaibo (3-1) will play Pool A runner-up El Rio Little League of Oxnard, Calif., in a semifinal scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Friday.

Freehold Township, which clinched its semifinal berth Tuesday, will face Pool A champion Dade City, Fla., at 11:30 a.m.

Maracaibo had Freehold Township on the ropes when it took a 2-1 lead in the top of the seventh. Carlos Salazar led off with a bunt single down the third-base line, and went to second on Rowuar Prado’s single to right. A wild pitch by Freehold Township starter Dominick Hayes advanced the runners, and Salazar scored the go-ahead run when Freehold Township second baseman Joe DiCaro mishandled a liner by Gonzalez.

That lead was short-lived.

Shawn Boysen hit a 1-1 pitch by Gonzalez over the left-field fence for a leadoff homer in the bottom of the seventh – just the third home run in the first 17 games of the World Series, all by Freehold Township.

“That’s baseball, that’s part of the game,” Urdaneta said. “You just have to keep going.”

Urdaneta then replaced Gonzalez on the mound, and yielded a one-out single to right by Hayes. Hayes stole second, but the threat ended when Maracaibo center fielder Victor Galue made a diving catch on a sinking line drive by Brett Brach.

“The key is the outfielders know each other, who is going to make the play and who has the best chance to get the ball,” said Maracaibo manager Gustavo Marcano.

Urdaneta allowed just one other baserunner during his three-inning stint, while Maracaibo capitalized on two Freehold Township errors to score the winning runs in the ninth.

Prado reached on a one-out error by Brach at third base, and Urdaneta followed with an infield hit off the glove of Freehold Township reliever Jason Nardi.

Gonzalez grounded to second, and DiCaro threw to third to catch Prado in a rundown. Prado raced toward home, but Brach overthrew catcher Mike LaCava, enabling both Prado and Urdaneta to score.

LaCava drew a two-out walk in the bottom of the ninth, but Urdaneta induced Hayes to fly out to left to end the game.

“[Maracaibo] is a great team,” Freehold Township manager Mike Brach said. “We knew when we got down to this part of the tournament that we’d be facing great teams, and we played right with them except for one lapse. That’s baseball, that’s the way it goes.”

Maracaibo used singles by Eudondar Gonzalez, Lester Silva and Galue to take a 1-0 lead in the first, but Hayes then shut down the Latin America champs through the sixth, aided by a pair of double plays started by shortstop A.J. Rusbarsky.

Hayes scattering eight hits while striking out three and walking two over 6 1/3 innings.

That effort was matched by Jose Ramon Gonzalez, the Maracaibo right-hander who allowed five hits while striking out one and walking one in six-plus innings.

Freehold Township did scratch out a run in the third, as Damian Csakai reached on a fielder’s choice, stole second and scored on Rusbarsky’s two-out single up the middle.

LATIN AMERICA 4, U.S. EAST 2

(9 innings)

Maracaibo, Venezuela (3-1) Freehold Twp, N.J. (3-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Soto rf 1 0 0 0 Csakai cf 4 1 0

R. Gonzalez 2b 3 0 0 0 Rusbarsky ss 4 1

E. Gonzalez 1b 4 0 2 0 Cuneo 1b-3b 4 0

Silva 2b 1 0 1 0 Boysen lf-2b 4 1 1

Mendez rf 1 1 1 0 LaCava c 3 0 0

Galue cf 4 0 1 1 Hayes p-rf 4 0 0

Salazar lf 4 1 1 0 Nardi rf-p 2 0 0

Prado c 3 1 1 0 Yngstrom rf 1 0 0

Gomez c 1 0 0 0 Brach 3b 2 0 0

Urdaneta 3b-p 4 1 1 0 Elo 1b 0 0 0

J.Gonzalez p-3b 4 0 0 0 DiCaro 2b 2 0

Rincon ss 4 0 1 0 Hubbert lf 1 0 0

Totals 34 4 9 1 Totals 31 2 6 2

Latin America 100 000 102 ? 4

U.S. East 001 000 100 ? 2

E?DiCaro, Brach 2; LOB?Latin America 6, U.S. East 4; 2B?LaCava; HR?Boysen; DP?U.S. East 3; SB?Hayes 2, Csakai

Latin America IP H R ER BB SO

J. Gonzalez 6 5 2 2 1 1

Urdaneta (W, 2-0) 3 1 0 0 1 3

U.S. East IP H R ER BB SO

Hayes 6 1/3 8 2 1 2 4

Nardi 2 2/3 1 2 0 1 1

J. Gonzalez pitched to one batter in 7th.

WP?Hayes; T?2:24; ATT?350