| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E | |
| Pennsylvania | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 |
| Hawaii | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | X | 3 | 6 | 0 |
WP: Tavares LP: Peiffer
Pitching is often the difference in elimination games at the Little League World Series. And what a difference does having Evan Tavares available make for the boys from Maui. A hard-firing lefty with excellent location is exactly what Hawaii needed to get by a game Council Rock Newtown squad on Tuesday afternoon.
Pennsylvania had an early opportunity while Tavares was still powering up. While Evan did strike out two, Brayden Peiffer and Sav Longo worked walks. Greyson Gage hit a fly ball and it was tracked down in foul territory by Gauge Pacheco in right to end the scoring opportunity.
Conversely, Hawaii took advantage in the first inning. Pacheco walked on a full count pitch and two batters later, Brextyn Kamaha’o Hong singled, putting runners on the corners. Kanon Nakama hit a sac fly to right to bring in the first run. On the sac fly, Hong moved to third after stealing second earlier. Maui was able to execute the double steal as Takahashi took second. Ryan Uhl fired down to Rocco DaBronzo late. DaBronzo threw back home but the ball went by Uhl as Hong scored and Takahashi took third. After all was settled, Hawaii led 2-0.
Gavin Caudill provided a leadoff single in the top of the second, marking the eighth time in nine innings that a leadoff Newtown batter got on base. However, Evan Tavares started doing what Evan Tavares does by striking out the side.
The theme continued for most of the game. Hawaii left two on in the second and third, while Tavares struck out the side in Newtown’s half of the third and getting them in order in the fourth. Dean Hamilton snagged a liner at short to end Maui’s fourth inning, ranging to his right for a great catch.
Sav Longo led off Pennsylvania’s fifth inning with a single to right, but Greyson Gage was called out on strikes on a ball that appeared to be both low and inside, allowing Tavares to expand his sides and corners. The inning ended with another strikeout of DaBronzo.
Hawaii added insurance their half of the frame. Dean Hamilton made another fantastic grab deep in the hole at short and fired across to Brody Gage, but Gage’s foot came off the bag and Cam Kaneshiro was safe on a single. Yang wasted several pitches and eventually put one into left. Brayden Peiffer reached the pitch limit on the at bat and gave way to Tyler Wexler. A walk loaded the bases with no outs, giving Hawaii a chance to break the game wide open. Laloulu hit a ball to right field for an out. Will Siveter threw in to Ryan Uhl. Kaneshiro was suddenly hung up between third and home and Newtown had a double play opportunity. However, On the throw back to third, Neeld threw high to home and Kaneshiro was able to score, making it 3-0 Hawaii.
Evan Tavares continued into the sixth, getting two outs, sandwiched around a Ryan Uhl double into deep right to the wall. With the dominant Tavares out of the game after hitting the pitch limit and striking out 12, Kanon Nakama was in and Pennsylvania started a rally. Will Siveter dropped a single into shallow left to bring Uhl in for the first run of the game. Tyler Wexler walked to turn the lineup over to Dean Hamilton, with the tying run on base. Hamilton was struck out looking to end the ballgame and Hawaii advanced, bolstered by some incredible pitching.
Hawaii will now face Florida in an elimination game on Wednesday night at 7:00
Evan Tavares “After the first inning I felt way more comfortable and was throwing more strikes.” He continued, commenting on his catcher Matthew Yang, “I like Matt. Matt’s funny behind the plate and he also locks in.”
Hawaii manager Zach Bolduc, a man of few words, noted of his team moving forward, “If these boys keep throwing strikes and we wake the bats up, this team’s going to be hard to beat. You’ve got to win all aspects of the game.”
Newtown manager Brad Hamilton spoke at length in his final press conference.
“Evan is awesome. It looks like a ball until it’s a strike. He does a wonderful job at a young age of playing the corners and not giving you a barrel strike to hit. The strategy was to see the ball as long as possible.”
“Brayden was doing great. I have full confidence in Brayden. The biggest thing for me with Brayden is it changes my defense. The musical chairs there, sometime get us. It wasn’t our cleanest game, but under the circumstances, it really was. Brayden was getting batters out and it was a 3-1 game against the West and I guarantee everyone coming here didn’t think the Mid-Atlantic was going to have a shot.”
“I felt good [in the sixth inning] and I still feel good. The boys were doing what they were supposed to.”
“They’ve given me so much. For the rest of my life I will remember these boys. When you ask 12-year olds to help you and give you what they can, it’s awesome when you see it. This is what you get into coaching for.
There’s nothing negative about this experience as the Pennsylvania team. It’s just a phenomenal experience. What people don’t know about the LLWS is there’s volunteers all from Williamsport and they give you hours and hours of time. We have uncles Curt and Keith, and they’re just donating their time. It’s amazing to see these people give their time for 12-year old boys to have this experience. This has been nothing but a dream. You can’t imagine when you start out, just teaching boys how to play baseball and to end up here.”
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | H | E | |
| Florida | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| New York | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
WP: Norton LP: Torres
Lake Mary Little League knew all along, but some did not, that they had a secret weapon. Garrett Rohozen made his first postseason pitching appearance since states and dazzled for three innings in a game that was far closer than the final score might indicate.
Steve Grippo was another standout talent at the pitching position in Williamsport and he got the start for New York. Both he and Rohozen notched two strikeouts in the first inning, setting down the opposition in order. Grippo added two more in the top of the second and got Jacob Bibaud to ground out to conclude a nine pitch at bat. Rohozen struck out the side in the second, and we had a pitching duel on our hands early.
Florida came up with the first serious threat of the night, loading the bases with one out, as Chris Chikodroff took one off the arm and went to first base. Joe Irachi was an early hero for South Shore, though, catching a line drive off the bat of Lathan Norton, going down to snag it and record the second out. Hunter Alexander worked a walk on five pitches to push the only run of the inning home and Grippo struck out Chase Anderson, the leadoff batter in the lineup, to leave three stranded. Grippo finished the third with 62 pitches thrown.
The team from Staten Island got its own chance in the third. Alex Torres lined out to J.J. Feliciano at short, who tried to get a double play but bounced the throw to first. Dean Scrangello, who had been hit by a pitch, moved up. Dylan DeGaeta swung on a full count pitch and put one back up the middle and Joe Iraci bunted both runners into scoring position. The rally ended when Zach Weiss grounded back to Rohozen for an easy putout at first.
The top of the fourth saw two very close plays. On a Rohozen groundball to short, Alex Torres fired to first seemingly in time for the out and replay confirmed the ultra-close call. The inning ended when Miesses hit one down to Vince Ruggiero at third. Ruggiero went into foul territory to get the ball and made the long throw across the diamond where Jake Romero made the scoop to retire the side.
The fourth inning was kind to Staten Island in their last two games, scoring four runs in each. This one seemed like it might be headed the same way. After Jason Rocchio was hit by a pitch to open the inning, on a ball that bounced off his helmet. Ruggiero then missed a two-run home run by inches off the base of the wall in center. He ended up on second base with a double and South Shore had two in scoring position with no outs. Lathan Norton then took the mound and got Grippo to flyout to right, but the first run came home for New York to tie the game at 1. Norton navigated the next two batters, with McLean popping out in foul ground and Peter Giaccio striking out swinging.
In the top of the fifth, Liam Morrisey reached on a ball that was thrown low and wide by Ruggiero. Scarangello came on to replace Grippo, who had thrown just 57 pitches to that point. Chikdroff hit a seeing-eye single into right, under the glove of both Scarangello and Joe Iraci and nearly clipped the runner Teraj Alexander, who slowed down to avoid the ball.
Norton would get the first two batters of New York’s fifth inning on strikeouts before Scarangello and Torres singled to pose a two out threat. DeGaeta hit one down to third for a force-out and the rally was over once again.
Things fell apart for New York in the sixth. After Hunter Alexander was ruled out diving into first base to try and beat a throw, Chase Anderson tripled on a ball that went down the right field line. Feliciano brought home Anderson on a sac fly. Then, Bono and Rohozen both wore pitches, bringing up Miesses. Doing the Soto Shuffle, Miesses backed it up with a rope out to left field, clobbering a ball that hung high in the zone. Norton struck out the side in the sixth, working around a single, and Florida advanced to play one more day in the elimination bracket.
Lake Mary manager Jonathan Anderson talked about the home run and the insurance it provided, “That separated it. We knew it was the bottom of their lineup[coming up] but if they flipped it over…that five run lead was big and DJ was due. You don’t want to unleash this beast, you’re going to be in trouble.”
On his home run, Miesses commented, “It felt really good because my team was down and we weren’t hitting the ball, so you saw me doing the Soto shuffle to make them throw strikes. My teammates ask me ‘why does Juan Soto copy you?’”
“The plan was to bring in Garrett. He throws upper 60s and I figured they don’t see that much. And then we’ve all seen Lathan pitch, kid knows how to shut a door better than anybody else.”
Rohozen on taking the mound for the first time in Williamsport: “I’ve been waiting for this moment for so long and it felt so great–a dream come true.”
Norton talked about his mindset going in in the relief and closing role, “My approach is I go in there thinking that no one can hit off me and if they do, it’s not going to be good contact, so I just do what I do.”
Between Rohozen and Norton, Florida struck out eleven New York batters and got by the second trip through the batting order.
“Grippo threw a great game and so did their pitchers. Credit to them. It was a great run we had and not everybody’s going to win, but as long as they fight to the end, I don’t have a problem, and they did. It was a better experience than they ever imagined.” Bob Laterza was proud of his team’s effort and run.
LSV Sports 
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