The Maui News
The Central East Maui All-Stars won the Hawaii State Little League Majors (11-12) title on Tuesday with a come-from-behind 8-5 win over Honolulu on the Big Island.
Earlier in the day, Honolulu beat CEM 7-0 to force the winner-take-all showdown in the double-elimination tournament. Central East Maui had just two hits in that loss.
In the finale, Logan Kuloloia led a 12-hit attack for Central.
Kuloloia was 3-for-4 at the plate with a run and four RBIs. His three-run homer in the third inning tied the game 3-3 and his RBI single in the fourth gave CEM a 6-5 lead that it would not relinquish.
Kuloloia also pitched the final 3 1/3 innings on the mound with three strikeouts, no walks and no runs allowed to preserve the victory.
Jaren Pascual was 2-for-3 with a run and Kaleb Mathias was 2-for-4 with an RBI for CEM.
Central East Maui advances to the West Regional in San Bernardino, Calif., set for Aug. 4-10. They are the sixth youth baseball team from Maui to win a state title this summer.
Joining Kuloloia, Pascual and Mathias on the state championship squad are Kamaha’o Akima, Duke Aloy, Caleb Chai, Shiloh Gilliland, Bransyn Hong, Isaac Imamura, Nakea Kahalehau, Kaedyn Miyake-Matsubayashi, Nicholas Nashiwa and Marley Sebastian.
At the Little League 50/70 Intermediate (12-13) West Regional on Tuesday, Central East Maui was eliminated in a 2-0 quarterfinal loss to Abbott-O-Rabbit Little League of Anchorage, Alaska. CEM managed just one hit in the loss.
The game was a rematch from a thriller played Sunday when CEM scored nine runs in the bottom of the seventh inning of a 21-20 walk-off win over Abbott-O-Rabbit.
The CEM Intermediates end the summer with a 5-2 record.
In Sacramento, Calif., the Central East Maui Seniors (15-16) All-Stars are set to face Northern California representative North Natomas in the West Regional championship game today. The Hawaii state champions already have a victory over North Natomas, a 10-0, five-inning win on Saturday.
CEM is going for its fourth straight trip to the Senior League World Series, held in Easley, S.C.