The pitching for the team from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, had been so dominating that it had held the opposition scoreless in two eight-inning battles of attrition. And Wednesday's starter, Manuel Barrios, was coming off a 16-strikeout showing in Latin America's shutout win on Saturday.

So even the most optimistic among Mexico's flag-waving faithful could never have anticipated anything approaching their 11-0 win in four innings over Latin America on Wednesday afternoon at Lamade Stadium in the International semifinals of the Little League World Series.

"I had no idea it was going to be so easy," said Mexico's manager, Candelario Lopez, through a translator. "We anticipated winning, but we didn't think it was going to be so easy."

It was the first occasion during the tournament in which the ten-run mercy rule had to be used before the fifth inning.

The onslaught from which Barrios could never recover began with Jose Segoviano's two-run homer deep beyond the shrubbery in center field. A pair of errors and a few close pitches, ruled balls, later, and Barrios had completely lost any semblance of the composure and poise he displayed for six innings just days earlier. He repeatedly raised his arms in frustration and bounded vigorously around the mound.

On this day, he gave up five runs -- three earned -- over his lone inning.

"More than the homer, what rattled him was those close pitches that were called balls," Latin America manager Domingo Carrasquel said through a translator.

The onslaught continued in the second and third innings against another pair of Latin American pitchers. Mexico sent 25 hitters to the plate through the first three frames, seemingly never giving their fans from Matamoros along the third base line a reason to lower the massive red, white and green flag they spread among themselves.

The decisive blow came by way of Josue Barron's three-run homer onto the hill in left field to put Mexico ahead, 7-0, in the second inning. Roberto Guajardo then added a three-run shot of his own in the third inning to put his club ahead, 11-0.

The three-homer barrage equaled the team's long-range output over the first three games combined.

"Yeah, we were a little surprised, but we're happy," Segoviano said.

Overshadowed in it all was a brilliant performance by Omar Zamora, who struck out the side in three of his four innings.

Mexico will now face the winner of Thursday's semifinal game between Kawaguchi City, Japan, and Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, in Saturday afternoon's International final.