Pearl City leaned on starting pitcher Tytan Takahashi in a 4-2 win over Taylor, Mich., in the Intermediate (13-14 years old) 50/70 Baseball World Series in Livermore, Calif., on Monday afternoon.
Takahashi responded with a herculean effort, striking out 13 on 101 pitches, The right-hander missed a complete game by just one out. Takahashi struck out the side in three of his 6 2/3 innings pitched. On offense, Takahashi also drove in a run and scored another.
Similar to its 8-4 win over Ascension Parish (La.) on Sunday, Pearl City put pressure on Taylor and reaped the rewards by capitalizing on mistakes. Of Pearl City’s four runs, only one was earned, as Taylor committed three errors. Against Ascension Parish, half of Pearl City’s runs came on Ascension Parish mistakes.
After a scoreless first inning, Luke Furutani got the ball rolling for Pearl City in the second inning. He reached on a single to center field and stole second. Noah Propios followed by reaching on a Taylor fielding error, sending Furutani home for the first run of the game.
Boston Schwager nearly doubled the score in the next inning, sending a bomb to the right-field wall for a triple. Schwager hesitated for a moment coming around third base, costing him the inside-the-park home run as he was tagged out at home.
Takahashi reached on an error to lead off the fourth inning, then made his way to third base on Kelton Onomura’s full-count walk followed by Ryley Omine’s sacrifice hit. With runners at first and third, Justin Kamano Bulosan got the ball to drop in shallow right field to score Takahashi and make it 2-0. Taylor scored its first run in its half of the inning to cut the deficit to 2-1. Taylor lined into a double play with the tying run at third base to keep it a one-run game.
In the sixth inning, Pearl City leadoff hitter Logan Calleon singled to the shallow outfield. Calleon later advanced to third on a wild pitch, then headed home when Schwager’s line drive was dropped by the Taylor second baseman. Takahashi singled past the first baseman to score Schwager from second and cap the two-run inning.
Nearing his pitch limit, Takahashi took the mound once again in the bottom of the seventh. He hit a batter to open the frame, but recovered by inducing a groundout. Against the next batter, he got his 12th strikeout of the game, but the ball was dropped by the catcher and the runner made it safely to first. Takahashi picked up his 13th strikeout against the next hitter but walked the cleanup on a full count on his 101st pitch. Noah Balderas took over on the mound, giving up one hit, then inducing a groundout to finish the game.
Pearl City will be off today before taking on Tampa, Fla., in the winners’ bracket on Wednesday at 3 p.m.
Central East Maui rolls
Central East Maui got back to its winning ways with a 12-0 run-rule victory over Burbank, Ill., in the Senior Baseball World Series (15-16 years old) on Monday.
Powered by a 10-run second inning, Central East Maui picked up its second win in three games. La‘akea Ko, Kaleb Mathias and Marley Sebastian each drove in a pair of runs for Central East Maui.
The first inning gave no indication to the offensive eruption that was about to come. Kaden Anderson scored on a groundout and Ko scored on passed ball to give Central East Maui a 2-0 lead.
The second inning began well, with a walk and two singles. Anderson walked with the bases loaded, then Ko singled to score a pair of runners. Kamaha‘o Akima singled to score Anderson, then Nakea Kahaleahau was hit by a pitch to score Ko. Kaedyn Miyake-Matsubayashi and Mathias singled back-to-back to score Duke Aloy and Akima and cap the 10-run inning.
Next up for Central East Maui is a matchup against Weslaco, Texas, on Wednesday at 10 a.m.
