Hawaii ends Mill Creek’s run in Little League World Series

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa— Mill Creek’s magical ride to the Little League World Series came to an end at the hands of Waipahu, Hawaii, on Wednesday night at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

Hawaii did it with the long ball, belting four home runs in a 9-4 victory in a U.S. semifinal, loser-out game.

Mill Creek, which took 2 ½ hours of batting practice Wednesday, had seven hits and plenty of base runners but left 11 of them on base.

Hawaii moves on to the U.S. championship game on Saturday.

Mill Creek’s offense struck right away with two runs in the top of the first. Alex Jondal lined a single to left on a 0-2 pitch to drive in Dan Kingma from third and Jason Todd from second. Kingma drew a leadoff walk and Todd singled to center with one out.

But Hawaii answered in a hurry. Christian Donahue reached base on an error by Alek Baumgartner, who couldn’t hang onto a sinking line drive. Tanner Tokunaga then belted a home run to keep left to tie it. After Pikai Winchester reached first when first baseman Alec Kisena couldn’t handle a high throw from pitcher Derrick Mahlum, pinch-hitter Iolana Akau lined a home run to center.

Mill Creek cut the deficit to 4-3 on K.J. Neaville’s home run to deep center, his first of the Series.

In the bottom of the third, Hawaii started to pull away. Pikai Winchester belted a home run to left on the first pitch from Mahlum. Later in the inning, Kainoa Fong’s two-run double made it 7-4.

Mill Creek’s Casey Dawes scored on a wild pitch in the sixth to cut the lead to 7-4, but the inning ended with runners stranded at second and third.

Hawaii added two insurance runs in the fourth when Winchester hit a two-run blast to left for his second home run of the game.

Manager Scott Mahlum said the experience of making it to the series would be hard to top. He believed his team was capable of making it this far after coaching them as 10-year-olds and 11-year-olds.

“They’re that good and that talented,” he said. “I thought we were going to win tonight.”

LINE: Mahlum, Soderqvist (3) and Jondal. Duhay, Tokunaga (4), Donahue (6) and Obedoza. 2B: Fong. HR: Mill Creek: Neaville; Hawaii: Tokunaga, Akau, Winchester 2. WP—Duhay. LP—Mahlum.

Attendance: 16,300.