SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- The hits were few, the strikeouts plenty.

Zachary Osborne and Aaron Alvey, two of the game's record-setting pitchers, hit consecutive home runs in the 11th inning to give Louisville, Ky. a 2-1 victory over Fort Worth, Texas, in the first U.S. semifinal at the Little League World Series.

	Zachary Osborne's home run off pitcher Michael Valdez broke a scoreless tie in the 11th inning for Louisville.

It was the first game in the history of the Little League World Series in which both pitchers threw no-hitters through six innings.

Alvey struck out 19, while Fort Worth starter Walker Kelly struck out 21. Both had to be replaced in the 10th because of a Little League rule that bars pitchers from throwing more than nine innings in a game.

"With Aaron throwing the way he did, he pitched one tremendous game tonight,'' Louisville manager J. Troy Osborne said. "To go nine innings, no hits -- my hat's off. He had one heck of a game. And we didn't feel like he had his fastball tonight, either. He was down 4-5 miles per hour from his first game here.''

Alvey had similar praise for Kelly.

"He was awesome,'' Alvey said. "Our team can hit the ball, but he really shut us down tonight.''

Five pitchers combined for 49 strikeouts, the most ever in a series game. The previous record, set during the 1971 championship game between Gary, Ind., and Tainan City, Taiwan, saw Lloyd McClendon, now the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates, and Mu-Hsu Chin combine for 34. Tainan City won 12-3 in nine innings.

The game took 3 hours, 10 minutes, one minute short of the series record set in 1998 between Toms River, N.J. and Jennison, Mich.

Worcester, Mass. faces Harlem, N.Y. in the other U.S. semifinal on Thursday and that winner plays Louisville on Saturday in the U.S. championship game.

Osborne hit the first pitch of the 11th inning from Michael Valdez (1-1) over the wall in center field. Alvey then hit a 3-2 pitch over the wall in left to make it 2-0.

"I knew I just had to get up there and get a base hit,'' Osborne said. "When I hit it, I was like, `Yeah it's gone.'''

Osborne (2-0) worked the 10th and earned the win.

Josh Robinson started the 11th for Louisville, giving up a single to Jeffrey Vander Hamm and walking Kelly. Vander Hamm reached third on a wild pitch, then scored on a throwing error by catcher Ethan Henry. But Robinson struck out Valdez to end the game.

Because Osborne pitched just one inning, he can still pitch Saturday in the U.S. championship game.

"Scoring the two runs there, the back-to-back home runs, that's huge,'' the elder Osborne said. "That does more than win the game, it sets us up for the future.''

Also Wednesday, Japan beat Guam 10-0 in the first international semifinal. Japan (4-0) will face the winner of Thursday's semifinal between Willemstad, Curacao, Netherlands Antilles and Valencia, Venezuela for the international championship on Saturday.

Chris Rivera had Fort Worth's first hit, a two-out line drive to center in the bottom of the 10th.

Henry singled to left and Justin Elkins walked to give Louisville runners at first and second with one out in the 10th. But Valdez struck out one hitter and Vander Hamm made an unassisted play at first to end the inning.

Kelly gave up his first hit in the seventh, a two-out double to right by Henry. Henry reached third on a passed ball, but Kelly struck out Casey Jordan looking.

"It was fabulous,'' Fort Worth manager Jon Kelly said of the game. "I just wish we could have ... just gotten a hit sometime before the 10th inning."

Japan 10, Guam 0, 4 innings
Tatsuhiko Numakura hit a two-run homer and Yoshinori Satoh struck out eight for Japan.

Japan scored five runs in the third to take a 6-0 lead. Tsukasa Satoh had a two-run triple, Yoosuke Katoh a run-scoring single and Numakura hit his third home run of the series.

The game was called because of Little League's mercy rule when Japan added four runs in the fourth.

Guam (2-2) had just two hits, and no runner advanced past first base.