Maui came just shy of a Little League World Series title in 2019. Now the island has another shot

The Central East Maui Little League All-Stars have won five straight elimination games to make it to a place Maui has been to only once in history. 

The team made up of players from Wailuku, Kahului and Lahaina are in Williamsport, Pa., for the Little League World Series, joining the history books with a team from the same league that reached the event in 2019.

The bottom line is simple for 2024 team manager Daniel Bolduc as his team prepares for their LLWS opener on Wednesday.

“It’s a blast, man, this is definitely an experience,” Bolduc said. “It’s crazy how this town is just baseball. It’s unbelievable. … As long as the kids feel like superstars, that’s the purpose of this whole thing.”

The magnitude of the accomplishment is not lost on Bolduc. The first team from the Valley Isle to make it to Williamsport for the traditional LLWS came in 2019 when a Central East Maui Little League team ran through pool play until it was beaten in the United States championship game, one win short of playing for the world title.

“That’s unreal and that’s the same thing that we told our kids, is that ‘understand how hard it is to get here,’ ” Bolduc said. “As many years as we’ve coached — and like you said, only two teams from Maui have made it this far — and we’ve had some unreal teams go through these tournaments.

“Sometimes you’ve got to get lucky, the ball has got to bounce your way, but that’s the game of baseball, right?”

When reminded that this is just the second Maui team to advance this far to the World Series that is televised on ESPN and ABC, ace pitcher Evan Tavares shook his head.

“It’s astonishing, honestly,” Tavares said via phone from Pennsylvania on Monday. “That’s crazy.”

Tavares, who’s also the team’s center fielder when he’s not on the mound, pitched 5 1/3 innings in that game and struck out 14 in the West Region final, when the team beat Eastvale, Calif., 2-1 for the West Region title and World Series berth.

Kolten Magno is the second baseman and is a natural leader for the team as he hails from Lahaina — his family lost its house in the deadly wildfire that devastated West Maui just over a year ago.

After the fire, Magno was given a special exemption to play for the Maui team even though he is outside of the Central Maui region that the rest of the team comes from. He and his family now live with his grandmother in Wahikuli.

“It’s very good, coming out from Lahaina and playing for Central, it’s a lot,” Magno said. “It’s good, very cool.”

In many ways, Tavares and Magno bookend the storylines for this group.

Tavares is a 5-foot-10, 130-pound left-hander, while Magno is 4-11 and 95 pounds. 

Tavares is a seventh-grader at Iao Intermediate School in Wailuku, while Magno is a seventh-grader who attends Lahaina Intermediate just above where his house burned.

Both players are grateful for the other.

“Every batter that’s up, he’s like strike after strike after strike,” Magno said. “Every hitter is like, they hit it opposite, like, to me. I have to be ready.” 

Magno’s mom and dad, Kim Ann and Dawson Magno, are along for the trip to Williamsport. Kolten’s twin sister Charly is back home and has not said a word to him about the World Series, but older brother Kahi, a standout for the Lahainaluna High School football team, gave his younger sibling some encouragement after winning the West.

“She never called me once since I’ve been gone,” Magno said of his twin. “But my brother, he’s like ‘congrats for making it to Williamsport’ and hoping we win it all, ‘bring it home.’”

Tavares allowed just one run in 11 1/3 innings pitched in the West Regional — he won both games he started in San Bernardino, Calif., with 14 strikeouts in each. He also won a pair of games on the mound in the state tournament and was the winning pitcher in each championship game, against Kāne‘ohe at state and Eastvale, Calif., in the regional.

“I was a little nervous because of the crowd, but once I blocked them out it wasn’t really a problem,” Tavares said of the regional final. “It was exciting and I just was nervous at the same time. A lot of people watching us and a lot of them are yelling at you.”

The solid Maui contingent at the West Regional was a big part of the title, Tavares said.

“It felt great, at least there was some supporters there,” he said. 

Tavares has been the opening day and championship game pitcher at both the state and regional levels and he expects to get the ball again when Central East Maui takes on Salem, N.H., the New England region champ, at 9 a.m. HST on Wednesday in a game set to be on ESPN.

After a loss to Kāne‘ohe at the state tournament, Central East Maui Little League had to beat Waipi‘o and then Kāne‘ohe twice to advance to San Bernardino.

Tavares has a repertoire of pitches that include a two-seam fastball, curveball, slider and changeup.

“I usually use fastball, curveball, but my favorite pitch is fastball,” he said. 

The team has 13 players, hailing from four different schools — six attend ‘Īao Intermediate, four go to Kamehameha Maui, two are from Maui Waena Intermediate and Magno is from Lahaina.

The rest of the team includes Kanon Nakama, Kellen Takamura, Gauge Pacheco, Cam Kaneshiro, Eassie Miller, Jet Pontes, Matthew Yang, Brextyn Kamaha‘o Hong, Hayden Takahashi, Kamalei Leynes-Santos and Gabriel Laloulu.

Bolduc knows that the momentum for Maui begins with Tavares on the mound.

“Yeah, he’s a very special kid,” Bolduc said. “Evan is his own guy. … Ev’s just got something about him, man. You’re not supposed to throw that hard and throw that many strikes at this age. It’s pretty unbelievable.”

Bolduc said his team is not paying much attention to the legacy they are creating as part of the vaunted Maui baseball history.

“They’re just out there doing their thing, one game at a time,” Bolduc said. “The thing is, maybe once this is all done, they can take a step back and they may realize, ‘Oh man, that was amazing.’ I don’t really think they realize how good they’re doing.”

Bolduc led the Wailuku Phillies to the Central East Maui Little League title and therefore was tabbed as the All-Star manager. His coaches include Kevin Constantino and Ian Shimabuku.

There are four Phillies on the roster, four Braves, three Giants, and one player each from the Mariners and Mets. He is grateful that one of those players is Magno.

“Man, ‘Mags’ is a great kid, he’s one of my favorite kids, I would have to say,” Bolduc said. “I mean, he just works hard, he’s super coachable. I mean, he’s not the biggest kid, but definitely one of the most competitive. He’ll stand in there with the best of them. He’s an awesome, awesome kid.”

Brad Lung, the manager of the 2019 Central East Maui Little League team to advance to Williamsport, has been one of several former Maui coaches to reach out to Bolduc. There have been watch parties around the island as Maui appeared on ESPN twice for games in the West Regional.

“I mean, the community is super supportive,” Bolduc said. “It’s unreal. To see all the watch parties, just the backing we get throughout the state is crazy. Not just Maui, but throughout the whole state, it’s unbelievable.”

The team arrived back at their hotel around 10 p.m. Friday and were on a bus for their charter flight from Ontario, Calif., to Williamsport, Pa., at 5 a.m. Saturday. Since then, they have had nonstop fun prior to the 12-day World Series adventure they are about to undertake.

“I’m still tired, I think,” Bolduc said. “Until the first game is played they said it’s going to be hectic. We’ve got dinner, meetings — you’ve got to be there. You’ve got to get fitted for your uniforms and then we met with Easton and you get your baseball bat and your bag and all this stuff.

”Then you’ve got media day, you’ve got to go talk to the media. It’s just a lot of stuff happening. All day.”