BANGOR – Upper Deerfield, N.J., and Willemstad, Curacao, reached the same destination Friday with semifinal victories in the Senior League World Series at Mansfield Stadium.

But they got there in vastly different ways.

New Jersey, the U.S. East champ, had just one hit against the Canadian champions from Whalley, British Columbia, but righthander Gage Mick countered with a shutout pitching effort as Upper Deerfield earned a 1-0 victory.

Curacao used its speed and some early errors by East Boynton Beach, Fla., to build a big early lead in its semifinal, then held on for an 8-7 victory in the first game of the day.

Saturday’s 3 p.m. championship game will be a rematch of a Pool B game played Thursday, when Upper Deerfield used single runs in the bottom of the sixth and seventh innings to score a walk-off 5-4 victory.

“They’re a real good team, we know that,” said Upper Deerfield center fielder Barry Larro. “Everybody’s quick on their team, they’ve got a good infield and we know we’re going to see a good pitcher.

“We know we can play with them, we’ve beat them already, but we’ve just got to play baseball.”

Larro scored the only run of Upper Deerfield’s semifinal victory, hitting a first-inning triple and then scoring on the play when the relay throw to the infield was misplayed.

Whalley righthander Carsen Nylund had retired the first two batters he faced, getting Mick on a fly to right and Darren Fischer on a deep fly to the left-center field gap that center fielder Adam Quan tracked down after a long run.

Larro then lined the first pitch he saw toward left, and while Whalley left fielder Chris Fischer dove to keep the ball in front of him, he came up empty and the ball rolled toward the fence.

“It was a low fastball and I knew I could drive it,” Larro said. I’d seen Gage and Darren both hit it hard in their two at-bats so I knew he was hittable, so I was just looking for my pitch. It was a nice low fastball and I got on top of it and drove it to left field, and the left fielder went to lay out and as soon as I saw it go by him, I just took off.”

Larro was set to stop at third, but the throw back in from the outfield bounced loose.

“I knew when the left fielder missed it [Larro] had a least a triple, and I was just watching the relay,” said Upper Deerfield manager and third base coach Jim Willis. “If they would have caught the relay I was holding him up, but as soon as he dropped the ball, I said go, go, go, go, go.

“We took a chance and it worked out good for us and I’m glad we did it, but the key is he’s got to hit the ball first.”

That was the extent of Upper Deerfield’s offense against Nylund, who used a knuckleball with great success during his five innings on the mound.

But it was just enough because of Mick, who scattered three hits while striking out five and walking just one.

“He threw a lot of first-pitch strikes, and his curveball has a late break to it so I was just trying to keep it in front,” said Upper Deerfield catcher Joe Hamidy. “He was throwing it for strikes, and once we got ahead we mixed in his changeup in.”

Mick allowed just two runners into scoring position, when Nick Rohla hit a two-out double in the Whalley fourth, and in the seventh when Rohda hit a one-out single, stole second and went to third on a groundout before Mick struck out Brandon Bufton to end the game.

“I just threw what they didn’t expect and just hit my spots and let the defense make the plays for me,” said Mick.

In the first game, East Boynton Beach couldn’t overcome six errors in its one-run loss to Curacao, champion of the first SLWS to be held in Bangor in 2002.

Dursley Ignacio gave the Latin American champs a 1-0 lead with a solo homer to left in the first inning off East Boynton Beach starter Michael Kelly.

Curacao seemingly broke the game open an inning later, using two bunts, three hits and three East Boynton Beach errors for a five-run uprising good for a 6-0 lead.

“We used everything,” said Curacao manager Roque Bernadina. “We bunt, we sacrifice, and it had results.”

East Boynton Beach, which began the day undefeated, had just one hit – a third-inning RBI single by Willie Bonilla – through six innings against Curacao starter Jurickson Profar and reliever Curtney Doran, who came on in the second inning.

Despite that lack of offense the U.S. South champs did creep within 8-3 by adding single runs in the fifth and sixth.

“Their big inning kind of put us down for a bit,” said Kelly, “but later in the game we forgot about it.”

Indeed.

Boynton Beach threatened to come all the way back in the bottom of the seventh, scoring four runs on four hits, an error and a hit batter.

Aaron Faaland’s one-out RBI single off Profar – the Curacao ace who had just returned to the mound – scored Ryan Pistey to close the gap to 8-7, but with the tying run in scoring position Profar retired the next two batters to earn the save in his own start.

“[Profar] has some problems with his arm,” said Bernadina. “In the fifth inning I gave him some massage and it helped, and he was able to come back out and win the game.”

Ignacio had a infield single to go with his home run to pace Curacao’s seven-hit attack, while Willie Bonilla singled twice for Boynton Beach.

“We can hit pretty good, so we thought we had a decent chance of coming back,” said Kelly. “We did pretty good, but we fell one run short.”

eclark@bangordailynews.net

990-8045

LATIN AMERICA 8, U.S. SOUTH 7

Curacao (3-2) Boynton Beach, Fla. (4-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Liberia, rf-lf 4 1 0 0 Massey, ss 2 1

Ignacio, cf 3 2 2 2 Worall, 3b 3 0 0

Moesquit, 2b 5 0 1 0 W. Bonilla, 1b 4 1 1

Schoop, ss 1 0 1 0 Cole, pr 0 0 0

Leonora, 3b 2 0 0 0 Kelly, p-lf 4 1 0

Profar, p-1b 3 2 1 0 A. Bonilla, c 2 0 0

Doran, lf-p-rf 3 1 1 1 Durgan, rf 4 1

Rojer, 1b-rf 4 2 1 0 Pistey, lf-p 2 2 1

Wanapa, p 0 0 0 0 Mazzacarri, 2b 3 0 0

Bischop, p 0 0 0 0 Faaland, cf 3 0 1

Rondei, c-pr 3 0 0 0

Hendrik, ph 0 0 0 0

Garia, pr 0 0 0 0

Totals 28 8 7 3 Totals 27 7 5 5

Latin America 150 011 0 – 8

U.S. South 001 011 4 – 7

E-Moesquit, Schoop, Leonora, Profar; A. Bonilla 3, Worall 2, W. Bonilla; LOB-Latin America 10; U.S. South 10; 3B-Doran; HR-Ignacio; S-Doran; SF-Massey; SB-Garia; Massey, Faaland

Latin America IP H R ER BB SO

Profar 1 0 0 0 2 1

Doran (W) 4 2/3 1 3 1 5 2

Wanapa 1/3 2 2 1 0 0

Bischop 1/3 1 2 0 0 1

Profar (S) 2/3 1 0 0 0 1

U.S. South IP H R ER BB SO

Kelly (L) 5 5 7 3 3 5

Pistey 2 2 1 1 2 2

HBP-Schoop by Kelly, Leonora by Kelly, Profar by Kelly, Hendrik by Kelly, Ignacio by Kelly; Massey by Doran, Mazzacarri by Profar; WP-Doran, Bischop; Kelly 3; BK-Doran 2; T-2:43; ATT-500

U.S. EAST 1, CANADA 0

Whalley, B.C. (3-2) Up. Deerfield, N.J. (5-0)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Atkinson, ss 3 0 0 0 Mick, p 3 0 0 0

Morache, 2b 3 0 0 0 D. Fischer, rf 3 0 0

Quan, cf 3 0 0 0 Larro, cf 3 1 0

Rohla, 3b 3 0 2 0 Godfrey, ss 2 0 0

Brien, 1b 3 0 0 0 Tyler, 3b 1 0 0

C. Fischer, lf 1 0 1 0 Casper, pr 0 0

Bufton, lf 2 0 0 0 Owens, 1b 2 0 0

Lankmayr, rf 2 0 0 0 Willis, pr-lf 0 0 0

Nylund, p 2 0 0 0 Hamidy, c 1 0 0

Buse, c 1 0 0 0 Johnson, ph 1 0 0

Nishimura, pr-p 0 0 0 0 Fogg, lf 1 0

Marshall, ph 1 0 0 0

Overstreet, 2b 2 0 0 0

Griffith, 2b 0 0 0 0

Totals 23 0 3 0 Totals 20 1 1 0

Canada 000 000 0 – 0

U.S. East 100 000 x – 1

E-Atkinson, Rohla; LOB-Canada 3; U.S. East 2; 2B-Rohla; 3B-Larro; SB-Rohla

Canada IP H R ER BB SO

Nylund (L) 5 1 1 0 1 5

Nishimura 1 0 0 0 0 0

U.S. East IP H R ER BB SO

Mick (W) 7 3 0 0 1 6

BK-Nylund; T-1:18; ATT-600