Friday, July 30, 1999

Pearl City crowned
state champs

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

The fireworks came early yesterday. The celebration continued last night.

Pearl City scored all the game's runs in the bottom of the first inning then rode the arm of Blake Kaneshiro to shut out Ewa, 4-0, in the championship game of the state Little League Major (11-12) Tournament at Keolu Field. The win, Pearl City's first since 1996, sends the team to the regional tournament in San Bernardino, Calif., Aug. 10-19.

"They're a real scrappy bunch of kids," said Pearl City manager Kimo DuPont, who has coached in the league for 11 seasons. "We just told them to go out, play hard and play like we know we can."

After losing to Ewa on Sunday, Pearl City had to fight through the loser's bracket of the double-elimination tournament in order to gain a rematch with unbeaten Ewa. Pearl City blasted Ewa, 14-3, Wednesday to force yesterday's deciding game.

"I knew when we won (Wednesday) that we could win today," said Kaneshiro. "I was pretty confident from the first inning on."

Kaneshiro struck out the first two batters he faced in the top of the first en route to a nine strikeout, five-hit complete game. He got help to close out the first when third baseman Bryson Nakamoto stole a possible single away from Ewa's Joshua Pong with a diving stop on a grounder and a perfect throw to first.

Pearl City got all the runs it needed in the bottom of the inning, using five singles and an error. Two great plays by the Ewa defense prevented Pearl City from scoring more - including a bullet throw by leftfielder Ian Ponturilla to the plate that nailed Pearl City's leadoff batter, Kaeo Neal.

Pearl City would get only one more hit the rest of the game, but it didn't matter. Ewa was unable to score, leaving two runners stranded in the second and the bases loaded in the third.

Both times, Kaneshiro pitched himself out of the jam. In the second, he struck out James Bannister to end the inning and, in the third, he struck out Brandon Spencer and Alika Kalili to close it out.

Ewa threatened in the top of the sixth when, with one out, Kalili nailed an 0-1 pitch that hit the bottom of the left-field fence for a double, the game's only extra-base hit. One out later, Brandon Vaa nearly made things interesting when he drilled a ball to right that would have gone over the fence had it not hooked foul; Vaa went down swinging to end the game.

"It was a very good win for us," said DuPont, whose 13-man roster included seven 11-year-olds. "(Blake) did a helluva job for us today and all tournament.

"Obviously, it was crucial to get those early runs because the rest of the game was pretty even."

Kaneshiro issued one walk in winning his third game of the tournament.

The champions took a leisurely victory lap with the state championship banner, lingering in center field, where the majority of their fans had camped out.

The reality of making the trip to California came soon after. Pearl City has scheduled a fund-raising car wash at Lex Brodie's-Waipahu tomorrow from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.

The members of the championship team are: Kaeo Neal, Elijah Souza, Blake Kaneshiro, Hoku Tampos, Tyler Hee, Kamaka Crabbe, Thomas Yamasaki, Koa Kaleo, Bryson Nakamoto, Konan Young, Ha'o Kamahiai, Kory Valenzona and Casey Fujishige.

Besides Kimo DuPont, the coaching staff includes Bobby Young, Cliff Rasa and Roy Uyeno.