BANGOR – Asia-Pacific’s Alejandro Diaz may have hit more home runs than anyone else in Tuesday evening’s Senior League World Series Pool A game against the U.S. South – indeed, he’s now hit more than anyone else in World Series history at Mansfield Stadium – but his two homers were no match for Ismael Garza’s one home run for the South.

Garza’s three-run shot in the top of the sixth complemented solid pitching from teammate Brannon Humphries in a 7-5 victory.

The win puts Habersham Little League from Clarksville, Ga., at 1-1 with a game against Bangor of Maine District 3 set for tonight at 8.

“We knew we had to win this one or it would be close getting into the semifinals,” Humphries said. “If we can win the next two we’ll be close to getting in.”

Central Little League, the Asia-Pacific champ Agana, Guam, falls to 1-2. Asia-Pacific will face Canada at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Diaz has hit three homers in this year’s World Series. No other player has ever hit more than one in the series. Guam also tied Willemsted, Curacao (2002) and Freehold Township, N.J. (2004) for most by a team.

Garza wasn’t a likely candidate to match Diaz based on the strikeouts in his two previous at-bats against Asia-Pacific reliever Freddy Cepeda. But Garza hit the first pitch he saw, a one-out fastball, with Michael Lewallen and Clark Mixon at second and first, respectively. That gave the South a 7-4 lead and a huge jolt after Diaz had hit his first homer of the game in the bottom of the fifth, tying it at 4-4.

“I got used to [Cepeda], I prayed and God answered me,” Garza said. “He just helped me.”

Humphries struck out 11, including the first two batters he faced in the bottom of the seventh. Those were two key outs as Diaz stepped in again and cranked another shot over the fence in left-center.

“I knew we had a three-run lead, and they chased [the pitches],” Humphries said of his curveball and changeups. “I went at [Diaz] again and he hit it a long way.”

Mixon added three RBIs on a double and a single.

Cepeda fanned eight and had no walks in his 5 2/3 innings. He reliever starter Aaron Sanchez, who gave up four runs in the first two innings.

Asia-Pacific backed up Cepeda with three runs in the fourth and Diaz’s fifth-inning homer.

The South did commit five errors, leading to two unearned runs.

“It definitely makes it hard to win when you have that many errors,” Humphries said. “We cut down on those and we’ll be good.”

U.S. SOUTH 7, ASIA-PACIFIC 5

(Pool A)

Clarksville, Ga. (1-1) Agana, Guam (1-2)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Mixon, cf 3 2 2 3 Sanchez, p 3 0 0

Garza, ss 4 1 1 3 Dazo, lf 1 0 0

Holden, 3b 3 0 1 0 Cepeda, lf-p 4 0 0

Humphries, p 3 0 0 0 Aguon, ss 4 0 0

Parker, 1b 2 0 1 1 A. Diaz, c 3 3 2

Vermilya, 1b 1 0 0 0 K. Diaz, 2b-3b 3 1 0

Boydstun, lf 4 1 2 0 Bautista, 1b 2 0 0

Jackson, 2b 4 0 2 0 Peredo, 1b 2 0 0

Brantley, rf-c 2 1 1 0 Quichocho, rf 3 1

Rogers, rf 2 0 1 0 Barcinas, 3b 2 0 0

Lewallen, c-rf 3 2 0 0 Daga, 2b 1 0

Kaneshiro, cf 2 0 0 1

Totals 31 7 11 7 Totals 30 5 5 4

U.S. South 130 003 0 – 7

Asia-Pacific 000 310 1 – 5

E-Mixon, Garza, Holden, Humphries, Lewallen; Aguon 2; LOB-U.S. South 8, Asia-Pacific 7; 2B-Mixon, Parker; HR-Garza (1); A. Diaz 2 (3); DP-Aguon-Daga-Peredo; SF-Parker

U.S. South IP H R ER BB SO

Humphries (W, 1-0) 7 5 5 3 2 11

Asia-Pacific IP H R ER BB SO

Sanchez 1 1/3 3 4 4 3 0

Cepeda (L, 0-1) 5 2/3 8 3 2 0 8

HBP-Lewallen (by Sanchez); A. Diaz (by Humphries); WP-Humphries; PB-A. Diaz; T-2:16; ATT-350 (est.)