If you got the idea Honolulu Little League manager Gerald Oda was hot under the collar at how his team closed out Sunday’s 8-3 win over Pointe Woods-Shores of Michigan, you were following along closely.
Despite moving firmly into the winners bracket of the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., with the victory, Oda decided to use the final inning of the game as a teaching moment for his 12- and 13-year-olds.
“We were disrespecting the game and our opponents the way we were clowning around playing to the cameras,” Oda said in a telephone interview. “That’s not why we came here and that’s why we had a team meeting with our players to straighten a few things out.”
On the bright side, Oda is happy to win the first two games as the team prepares for Mid Island of New York on Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. Win that key meeting and Hawaii advances to the United States championship game with a potentially well-rested pitching staff.
“Everybody out here has great pitching and hitting,” Oda noted. “That’s why if you can win these two, it sets up your team for the rest of week. It was great to get a win, always. But we need to come back on Wednesday with a better attitude about how we approach the game.”
What bothered Oda the most was the sloppy play of the sixth with Honolulu holding a commanding 8-1 advantage. The result was two runs scored by a Michigan team that beat Idaho in the first game by scoring four runs in the sixth to win 5-4.
“This game is far from over,” Oda said to his kids during a mound visit with two outs and a runner on second. Oda quickly put fan favorite Sean Yamaguchi on the hill to get the last out and secure the win.
Representing the West Region in this 16-team, double-elimination event, the Hawaii kids fell behind early by one only to use a six-run second as a launching point. Starting pitcher Ka’olu Holt went 31/3 innings to get the win. He also won the first game of this series over Georgia in relief on Friday.
He was a little shaky in the opening inning; not nearly as sharp as in relief on Friday.
After getting the opening hitter to go down swinging, Holt yielded a sharp single past the outstretched glove of third baseman Aukai Kea and into left by Jarren Purify.
The speedy third baseman for Michigan went to second on a walk to pitcher Ryan Knaebel and tagged up and went to third on a fly out to left. He then scored the game’s first run on a bloop infield single by Preston Barr. The soft fly ball landed right behind the pitcher’s mound and at the feet of three Hawaii infielders.
Hawaii scored the tying run in the bottom of the second without ever getting a hit. Caleb Okada drew a leadoff walk and went to second on a ball that got away from catcher Jake Martin, who struggled all game. Meanwhile, batter Taylin Oana got hit by a pitch while trying to bunt. Both runners moved into scoring position on a wild pitch with Okada scoring the tying run on another errant toss that Martin couldn’t handle.
Oana went to third on the play and remained there when John De la Cruz got hit by a pitch to put runners on first and third. On a 1-0 count to No. 9 hitter Jace Souza, De la Cruz took off for second, drawing a throw from Martin. But Michigan was wise to the play, cutting off the throw in front of second and catching Oana in a rundown. After a couple of throws back and forth, Oana broke for the plate and narrowly beat Purify’s tag as he slid in safely with the go-ahead run.
Michigan challenged the call, and after a few minutes of further review, the umpire ruled him safe as momentum quickly shifted to Honolulu’s side of the field. De la Cruz wound up on third during the rundown and scored on a single to center by Souza to make it 3-1. Souza went down to second on a passed ball that led to a pitching change with Purify taking the hill. He walked Mana Lau Kong to put men on first and second.
That brought Kea to the plate and he promptly doubled to left-center to score Souza from second as Lau Kong motored into third to make it 4-1. Yamaguchi was issued a free pass to load the bases as pinch hitter Hunter Nishina made his way into the batter’s box. He hit a little chopper to the left side as the drawn-in infield made a play at the plate.
It originally looked like Lau Kong was out, but his hard slide dislodged the ball from Martin’s grasp and the run counted to make it 5-1. The bases remained loaded with Nishina at first on a fielder’s choice. A wild pitch by Purify plated Kea to give Honolulu a 6-1 advantage with still only one out. After Okada struck out, pinch hitter Chandler Murray got hit by a pitch to load the bases, but a pop out to third ended the marathon bottom of the second.
Hawaii kept the pressure on by loading the bases in the bottom of the third and scoring a pair of two-out runs, the first on a wild pitch by reliever Reggie Sharpe that brought in Zachary Won. Nishina followed with an RBI-single back through the box that brought in Kea to make it 8-1.
Despite his slow start, Holt gave Hawaii some quality innings on the hill, holding Michigan to the single run before being lifted for the pitch rule with one out in the fourth. De la Cruz took over from that point and pitched well as he and Holt combined to get 13 consecutive batters through five.
