ASSOCIATED PRESS Ewa Beach's Michael Memea celebrated after hitting the game-winning home run against Willemstad, Curacao, yesterday.

Saving the
best for last

Michael Memea comes through when
it counts to give Ewa Beach the
Little League World Series title

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. » Ewa Beach manager Layton Aliviado had a sense that Michael Memea would do something big when Memea stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning last night.

On Saturday night, Memea thought he might, as well.

All the 12-year old catcher did was hit the biggest home run of his life -- and maybe Hawaii history -- to win the Little League World Series championship.

Ewa Beach defeated Willemstad, Curacao, 7-6 in the LLWS finale.

"He told us (Saturday) when we won against California that he would save his best for last," Michael's dad, Mack Memea, said. "It was a very awesome feeling. He was struggling for the last couple games and was 0-for-3 (going into the final at-bat).

"Then he hit that one and it was good."

Memea crushed a 3-2 pitch from Christopher Garia well over the right-center field fence 205 feet away and ran down the first-base line with his arms high in the air.

With a chance to do some damage in the first, Memea couldn't come through. He came up with one out and the bases loaded, but popped out to the shortstop. When he came up again in the third, Kini Enos and Alakai Aglipay had just hit back-to-back homers to tie the game at 3, and Sheyne Baniaga singled to prompt Curacao to make a pitching change.

ASSOCIATED PRESS Happy Ewa Beach teammates surrounded Michael Memea after Memea's walk-off home run beat Curacao yesterday.

He struck out again for the final out in the bottom of the fifth, with Ewa Beach trailing 6-3 -- prompting dozens of fans to head for the exits.

Mack Memea said at that point it wasn't looking like his son's thoughts about saving the best for last would amount to anything.

"It was already 6-3 and it was looking slim," Mack said.

But Michael Memea more than made up for his missed opportunities when he came up for a fourth time, leading off the bottom of the seventh.

"Finally, when that chance came up he took care of business," his father said.

Memea said he'd never hit a game-ending home run before.

"He hits hard line drives and as soon as he hit it, I knew it was gone," Aliviado said. "You could hear it off the bat."

Aliviado said he was surprised to see that Garia had come out for another inning -- after all, Garia had thrown more than 60 pitches to get through four innings.

"Mike took advantage and waited for his pitch," Aliviado said. "He doesn't hit high over the fence but when he hits it hard and gets a little bit of height, it's gone."

Memea had been 0-for-2 in both of Ewa Beach's previous two games. Overall, he finished the tournament 5-for-16 with three home runs, eight RBIs and seven runs scored.

Hawaii 7, Curacao 6

Curacao	AB	R	H	BI	Hawaii	AB	R	H	BI
Haime lf	1	0	0	0	Aliviado 1b	2	0	1	0
Garia 1bp	3	0	0	0	Enos ssp	3	1	1	1
Manuela rf	1	0	0	0	Aglipay 3b	3	1	1	2
Carolina cf	2	1	0	0	Baniaga 2bss	4	0	1	0
Profar ss	4	2	2	0	Memea c	4	1	1	1
Liberia p1b2b	4	1	2	3	Feao cf2bp	2	1	0	0
Lourens 1bprf	4	0	1	0	Guevara prf	2	2	2	0
Seferina 2blf	2	1	2	1	Javier phrf	1	0	0	0
Rodriguez phlf	1	0	0	0	Tirpak lf	1	0	0	0
Reina cfrflf	1	0	0	0	Ranit lf	1	0	0	0
La Crus phlf	2	0	0	0	Kam spr	1	0	1	1
Rifaela c	1	0	0	0	Rosete rfph	2	1	2	2
Virginie 3b	1	0	0	0	Kam cf	1	0	0	0
Brandao 3b	1	1	0	0
Totals	28	6	7	4	Totals	27	7	10	7
Curacao			003	030	0	--	6	7	0
Hawaii			012	003	1	--	7	10	2

E--Guevara, Rosete. HR--Enos, Aglipay, Liberia, Seferina, Memea. SB--Rifaela.

Curacao	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Liberia	0	0	0	0	3	0
Lourens	2	5	3	3	0	3
Garia (L)	4	5	4	4	2	5
Hawaii	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO
Guevara	3	4	3	0	1	4
Enos	1 1/3	2	2	2	1	2
Feao (W)	2 2/3	1	1	1	1	4

WP--Guevara. PB--Rifaela, Memea.
Umpires--Murphy (plate), Claton (first), Stuart (second), Garchitorena (third), Mohler (left), Singleton (right).
T--2:43. A--25,506.