Hilo dropped a back-and-forth contest to Southern California 12-8 at the Little League Majors (ages 11-12) West Regional on Thursday in San Bernardino, Calif.
Hilo rallied for four runs in the fifth inning to take a 7-6 lead. Southern California retook the lead with a six-run sixth and Hilo added a run in the bottom half of the inning.
Xaige Lancaster batted 2-for-3 with a home run, two runs and two RBIs and Joshua Ward went 2-for-4 with a double, a home run and two runs for Hilo (2-1).
Hilo will face Utah (2-1) today at 3 p.m. Hawaii time. The game will be broadcast on ESPN.
The winner of the contest will play Southern California (3-0) for the regional title at 3 p.m. on Saturday, also on ESPN.
The regional winner advances to the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., Aug. 17-27.
UH soccer picked to finish last in Big West
The Hawaii soccer team was picked to finish last in the Big West preseason coaches poll for the second consecutive year.
UH was picked ninth last fall and went 9-6-2 overall, including 2-5-1 in the BWC for a tie for sixth place. The Rainbow Wahine lost several four-year players from that team, as well as first-team Big West forward Addie Steiner.
“We’re just going to do our thing and enjoy proving people wrong,” seventh-year coach Michele Nagamine said Thursday.
Junior midfielder Raisa Strom-Okimoto, UH’s other first-team player in 2016, was tabbed to the 11-player preseason all-conference team.
UH hosts Houston Baptist in a 7 p.m. exhibition Monday at Waipio Peninsula Soccer Stadium, with the regular-season opener Aug. 18 against Utah Valley.
Rolfings will be honored by PGA
Part-time Maui residents Mark and Debi Rolfing were named co-recipients of the PGA Distinguished Service Award, announced Thursday.
Mark, an analyst for NBC and the Golf Channel, and Debi, his wife, are considered by many to be ambassadors for golf in Hawaii.
The Rolfings moved to Maui in 1976 when Mark became the director of marketing at Kapalua Resort. They started a television marketing firm in 1985.
They started the Mark and Debi Rolfing Charitable Foundation in 1990, with the aim of bettering the lives of high-risk, under-served children in need. In addition to supporting numerous other children’s charities, the Rolfings have been licensed foster parents for 18 years.
Through their Cradle Care Ministry, Mark and Debi have personally welcomed, loved and provided care in their Hawaii and Montana homes for 28 newborns, the majority being medically and often critically fragile at birth, according to the PGA of America release.
Mark is a survivor of Stage 4 salivary gland cancer, a diagnosis he received in August 2015.
The Rolfings will be honored at the PGA’s annual meeting on Nov. 2 in Austin, Texas.
Begun in 1988, the PGA Distinguished Service Award honors outstanding individuals who display leadership and humanitarian qualities including integrity, sportsmanship and a passion for the game of golf, according to the release.
