BANGOR – The team representing the Asia-Pacific region at the Senior League World Series has known nothing but close games since arriving at Mansfield Stadium for this week’s series.

Less than 24 hours after losing its second two-run game of the World Series, the squad from Agana, Guam, won its second two-run game to keep alive its hopes to make the semifinals.

Asia-Pacific scored three runs in the top of the sixth and then held off Canada’s Westfort International Little League of Thunder Bay, Ontario, for an 8-6 victory Wednesday afternoon.

The win gives Asia-Pacific a final 2-2 record in Pool A. The fate of the Guam team rests on the outcome of Wednesday night’s game between Bangor and the U.S. South, and then Thursday night’s Bangor-U.S. West matchup.

The U.S. West team from Hawaii is 3-0 and has already clinched a spot in the Friday’s semifinals. If the South wins Wednesday, Asia-Pacific is out.

So there was some added pressure for Guam, especially on offense. The nine-hit effort against Canada was an improvement over Asia-Pacific’s five hits against the South Tuesday evening.

“Yesterday’s game was the least amount of hits we’ve had,” coach Patrick Leon Guerrero said. “I was hoping we would break out of that slump, and we hit the ball hard [Wednesday]. We’re trying to get into the semifinals. If we don’t, we had our chances.”

Asia-Pacific had a 5-4 edge at the start of the sixth. Guam had a leadoff single, but the runner was thrown out at third after trying to advance on a Freddy Cepeda single. Cepeda got to second on the throw and scored when Derwin Aguon tripled to right-center.

Alejandro Diaz, who has already hit two home runs this week, was intentionally walked and then stole second. Aguon scored on a Kurt Diaz single, and after stealing second, he advanced to third and then came home on two wild pitches for an 8-4 lead.

“We were trying to get a double play out of it, try a little strategy,” Canada manager Bill Oleksuk said. “It didn’t work, but you have to try those things in baseball.”

Canada’s Devon Carson had an RBI groundout in the bottom of the sixth and Robert Burtuzzo singled to drive in a run, cutting the lead to two runs. Michael Labelle hit a two-out single in the bottom of the seventh but reliever Aguon induced a groundout to end the game.

“We wanted to make sure we had someone on base in the bottom of the seventh,” Oleksuk said. “We thought we could get one runner on and put a little pressure on them, because we had been able to do that. We did get a runner on but it was a little bit too late.”

ASIA-PACIFIC 8, CANADA 6

(Pool A)

Asia-Pacific (2-2) Thunder Bay, Ont. (0-3)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Sanchez, cf-ss 5 0 2 0 Burtuzzo, 1b 4 1

Cepeda, lf-rf 4 3 3 0 Kovac, 2b 2 0

Aguon, ss-p 2 2 1 1 Matson, 2b 2 0 0

A. Diaz, c 2 2 1 1 Oleksuk, ss 2 0 2

Barcinas, 3b 2 0 0 0 Winters, cf-p 4 0 0

K. Diaz, 3b 1 1 1 1 Labelle, c-lf 4 0 0

Quichocho, rf 2 0 0 1 Agombar, p-cf 3 0

Dazo, lf 1 0 0 0 Hanlan, lf 0 0 0

Peredo, 1b 2 0 0 0 Smith, c 0 1 0

Bautista, 1b 2 0 1 1 Willis, 3b 3 0 1

Kaneshiro, p-cf 3 0 0 0 Bewski, rf 1 0

Daga, 2b 2 0 0 0 Carson, rf 1 1 1

Totals 28 8 9 5 Totals 26 6 7 5

Asia-Pacific 002 003 0 – 8

Canada 011 022 0 – 6

E-Aguon, Barcinas, K. Diaz, Daga; Kovac, Agombar, Willis; LOB-Asia-Pacific 8, Canada 6; 2B-Cepeda; 3B-Aguon; DP-Daga-Aguon-Peredo; S-Daga; Hanlon 2; SF-Oleksuk; SB-Sanchez, A. Diaz, K. Diaz 2; Burtuzzo, Oleksuk

Asia-Pacific IP H R ER BB SO

Kaneshiro (W, 1-0) 6 6 6 2 4 2

Aguon (S, 1) 1 1 0 0 0 0

Canada IP H R ER BB SO

Agombar (L, 0-1) 4 1/3 4 5 3 5 3

Winters 2 2/3 5 3 3 1 1

HBP-Aguon by Agombar, Daga by Winters; WP-Agombar 3, Winters 2; T-2:13; ATT-150 (est.)