Hawaii Beat
Star-Bulletin staff
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Waipio plays Arizona in semifinal today
Waipio secured the third seed in the Little League Western Regional tournament in San Bernardino, Calif., and plays Arizona's Ahwatukee American in a semifinal game today at 12:30 p.m. Hawaii time.
Waipio lost to Arizona 1-0 in its opening game of the regional on Friday and finished 2-2 in pool play. Arizona earned the second seed with a 3-1 record.
Waipio limited its opponents to nine runs on 17 hits in pool play. Waipio pitcher Marcus Yoshii posted 23 strikeouts in his two starts, but suffered one-run losses in both games.
Top-seeded Northern California (4-0) plays No. 4 Nevada (2-2) in the other semifinal. The winners meet for the regional title and a berth in the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., on Saturday. The final will be televised on ESPN at 3 p.m.
» Pearl City claimed the top seed in its pool in the Junior League Western Regional in Beaverton, Ore,. and plays Nevada in a semifinal game today. Pearl City went 4-1 in pool play, losing to Nevada 10-3 on Monday. The team had a bye yesterday, while Nevada beat Southern California 5-3 to stay alive.
The semifinal winners play again today at 4 p.m. Hawaii time for a spot in the Junior League World Series.
Hawaii players advance at Women's Amateur
Honolulu's Ayaka Kaneko needed three extra holes yesterday to advance to the second round of match play at the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship in North Plains, Ore.
Jenna Pearson of Wheaton, Ill., had a 1-up lead going to the 18th hole, but bogeyed the par-5 while Kaneko parred to tie the match. After matching pars on the first two extra holes, another par on No. 3 was enough to send Kaneko to today's second round.
Kaneko will next face Pei-Lin Yu of Chinese Taipei, who eliminated Honolulu's Stephanie Kono 5-and-4 yesterday. Pearl City's Mari Chun never trailed in her match with Amanda Blumenherst and rolled in a 10-foot birdie putt on No. 18 to move on with a 1-up win. Kimberly Kim of Hilo also advanced with a 2-and-1 win over Megan Grehan.
Chun will face Ciganda in the early round today. Kim faces Lauren Espinosa of Hickory Creek, Texas.
The winners of the morning round play their third-round matches this afternoon.
Local players winning with U.S. Junior team
The U.S. Men's Junior National Team, with three Hawaii starters, won its second match in as many days at the NORCECA Junior Continental Championship in Monterrey, Mexico.
Team USA swept Guatemala yesterday and the Dominican Republic on Tuesday. Statistics were not available for yesterday's match but on Tuesday, middle blocker Spencer McLachlin (Punahou) had 5 kills, 2 aces and an ace. Setter Kawika Shoji (Iolani) added a kill and a block. Statistics were not available for libero Jordan Inafuku (Kamehameha).
The U.S. plays Mexico today.