Gold Coast has been unstoppable so far at the Little League Softball Western Regional in Montana.
The senior girls (13-16 years old) from the Big Island are 4-0 at the tournament and have outscored their opponents a combined 43-4. Gold Coast are the defending champions at the event and are looking to earn a second consecutive berth to the Little League World Series, which will be held in Sussex County, Delaware from July 29 to Aug. 4.
Gold Coast reeled off lopsided wins against Southern California (13-0), Arizona (14-3) and Nevada (13-0). The squad’s closest game was a 3-1 win over host, Garden City Little League, also known as ZooTown. The tournament is being held in the city of Missoula and the two team’s have a history, often playing close games at the Western Regional.
Tehani Epenesa leads Gold Coast with nine RBIs in the tournament. She drove in seven of those in one game against Southern California when she blasted a pair of home runs, a double and a single.
Lisan Marie Mudong has collected six RBIs in the tournament, while Eliana DeRego and Kamalani Doctor each have three.
In the circle it’s been Pililai Kaai seeing the most amount of work, logging 12 innings pitched. She allowed no earned runs and has struck out 10. She hasn’t walked a batter. Epenesa has also put in some time pitching, working 11 innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out nine.
Gold Coast continues the tournament today with a pair of games against Washington and Montana.
Little league Baseball
West Side falls at state tourney
West Side came out hot, but a big inning from Honolulu proved too much to handle at the Little League Major Division (10-12 year olds) State Tournament in Naalehu.
Honolulu rode a nine-run fourth inning to a 12-8 victory over West Side, relegating the Big Islanders to a tougher route to a title. West Side will play Ewa Beach — which lost to Kauai 3-2— today. Honolulu will take on Maui.
While much is still to be sorted out, the championship is scheduled for Tuesday.
West Side advanced to the tournament by winning both of its games at the district tournament by a combined score of 20-0. It seemed to be easy sailing early against Honolulu after building a 3-1 cushion, but the big inning was a stunner for the West Siders. They rebounded with a five-run inning of their own, punctuated by a Kingston Lee home run. However, it wouldn’t be enough to pull off the comeback win.
