LLWS: SoCal Pushes Past Hawaii

The LLWS has been great to watch so far.

Next, thirteen of the sixteen teams who will be representing their region will be determined by tonight, with the last three teams to be determined in tomorrow’s game.

Out of these thirteen teams contains the Little League West Regional team, who was determined in tonight’s game at Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino, California.

The last two teams for the West Regional championship game, was truly the two best teams in the West Region, with a great match up between Hawaii and SoCal.

After Friday’s night game between Hawaii and Utah, the managers from SoCal and Hawaii did a coin toss to determine who was away, and home.

SoCal won the coin toss, and choose to bat first as the away team, which didn’t look like a bad decision.

In the top of first inning, SoCal’s offense sparked quickly.

Antonio Andradekicked off the game with a bullet right towards the first baseman, who dropped the ball.

Andrade then advances to third after two bad pitches fromVincent Ogasawara.

Levi Mendezthen brings in the first run of the game with an RBI single to left, and advances to third on next at bat, with ground rule double forNate Nankil, to put runners on second and third.

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Hitting clean up for SoCal,Walker Lannomsoon after hits another double to bring in Levi Mendez from third, and advance Nankil to third.

Jacob Baptistaensuingly hits into a 6-3 groundout, to bring in Nankil from third, and leave Walker Lannom on second.

SoCal leads 3-0.

Vincent Ogasawara then hit back to back batters to load the bases, which turned out not to be a smart thing.

AsNicholas Maldonadohits a groundball to the third baseman, who throw’s the ball over the catcher as he tried to get the force out at home. Unfortunately, that cost him and Hawaii two runs as Walker Lannom andAriel Armascrossed home plate to increase their lead to five.

Hawaii then got the next too batters to flyout, and groundout.

Hawaii responded with a lead off double down the left field line fromVance Oshiro, but SoCal countered with back to back groundouts.

Vincent Ogasawara then reaches on an error by the third baseman, Nate Nankil, andCharles Winchestersingles towards the second baseman to load the bases up, with two outs on the board.

As a result,Sage-Manuel Koahoubrings in two runs with a single to left, and is followed up with another two runs, with an error from Jacob Baptista.

SoCal leads 5-4.

With two outs in the top of the second inning, Walker Lannom, and Jacob Baptista extend the inning for an RBI double from Dante Schmidt, to increase the SoCal lead to six.

Redbird Rants

Vincent Ogasawara responds with a strikeout toBraiz Ramirezto end SoCal’s inning.

In the bottom of the second, Antonio Andrade supplies Hawaii with a lead off walk toJoshua Aribal.

On the next play, Jacob Baptista makes a spectacular double play, as Vance Oshiro hits a groundball towards Jacob Baptista, who then throws a lazer towards the second baseman to catch Joshua Aribal sliding back to second.

So. Cal leads the inning, with a single up the middle fromAriel Armas. Ariel then advances to second off a wild pitch, with one out.

Antonio Andrade singles to left to put runners on the corners, and Levi Mendez then grounds out to the pitcher. To advance Andrade to second, and bring in Armas from third.

SoCal leads 7-4.

In watching both games between Hawaii, and SoCal, it always felt that every time SoCal scored, Hawaii would always comes back, but that wasn’t the case this time.

With one out in the bottom of the third,Charles Winchesterhit a single to center, and was followed with a double to left fromSage-Manuel Koahou.

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In a chance for Hawaii to get back on the board. Antonio Andrade strikes out the last two batters to retire the inning.

Since Hawaii didn’t score, SoCal decided to get on the board with a lead-off solo home run from Walker Lannom.

SoCal afterwards continued coming as Jacob Baptista singled to center field,Dante Schmidtflies out to right field, andIsaac Artalejothen got hit by a pitch, to put runners on first and second with one out.

Ariel Armas then doubled to right field to bring in Jacob Baptista from third.

SoCal leads 9-4.

Hawaii in their next at bats, started good with a walk toJoshua Reis, andVance Oshirosafe at first off a fielder’s choice, to put runners on first and second with no outs.

SoCal reluctantly takes care of Hawaii, with a strikeout from Antonio Andrade, and a double play to get out of a jam.

SoCal then adds more runs, with a Levi Mendez single to left, followed by a Nate Nankil double to center to advance Levi Mendez all the way from home, but it didn’t stop there.

Walker Lannom grounded out to the pitcher for the first out of the inning, but Jacob Baptista clears the bases with a two-run homer to left field, for insurance runs.

Sage-Manuel Koahouresponds with back to back strikeouts to end the big inning for SoCal.

Levi Mendez takes over pitching duties for SoCal in the bottom of the fifth, with a 12-4 lead.

Levi Mendez retires the first three Hawaii batters he faced, with two strikeouts.

Hawaii then finally keeps the SoCal team off the board, as the SoCal team goes scoreless in the sixth.

"SoCal scored a run in every inning"

For the last three outs of the game, SoCal left the pitching duties to Levi Mendez.

Levi Mendez started the inning right where he left off in the last inning, striking outReyce Kajiwarafor the first out.

Hawaii from then on scored five runs as they tried a late comeback, but fell short as Levi Mendez, and the SoCal defense hung on to their lead to win the game, that ended up being a nail bitter till the end.

SoCal will now take a couples of days to recuperate, before they take their flights to Williamsport, Pennsylvania as the West Region team.

SoCal will play their first game against Great Lakes on the opening night of the Little League World Series at 7:00 PM on Thursday.

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