Monday Morning Maui Sports: Central East Maui Little League All-Stars fall in world championship game, bring home national title

The 13 boys on the Central East Maui Little League All-Stars baseball team will never forget the last two summers. 

The team fell short on its comeback attempt and lost for the first time in 14 games this season, 12-7 to Valencia, Venezuela, in the world championship of the Intermediate (11-13) Baseball World Series on Sunday in Livermore, Calif., but they will bring home a national championship banner after their 7-3 win over Greater New Orleans Little League on Saturday.

“Oh, super proud,” Maui manager Brendan Fujii said Sunday evening. “They’ve been playing hard all summer, were able to get to the national championship for the U.S., won that. … Just being here and having that deficit, but still fighting back and clawing back — can’t be any more prouder of them. They played a hell of a game.”

Fujii said Saturday that making the world championship game was a special accomplishment. 

“Being on this stage, and succeeding, and doing as good as they have, it puts a spotlight on Maui baseball,” Fujii said Saturday after the national title win. “It gives a goal for the younger kids to shoot for, something that is possible.”

The team included Kolten Magno, Evan Tavares, Kanon Nakama, Kellen Takamura, Gauge Pacheco, Cam Kaneshiro, Eassie “Kaiehu” Miller, Jet Pontes, Matthew Yang, Brextyn Hong, Hayden Takahashi, Kamalei Leynes-Santos and Gabriel Laloulu.

They are the first group from Maui to ever qualify for two World Series in a row under the Little League umbrella. The exact same 13 Maui boys made it to the traditional Little League (11-12) World Series in Williamsport, Pa., last season and played five games there before bowing out. 

Over the last two summers, this team is 23-5 with a roster of players from around the island.

Magno attends Lahaina Intermediate School — he was given an exemption to play for the Central East Maui team last season after his family home was destroyed in the Lahaina wildfire two years ago. Magno’s father Dalton said they hope to be in their rebuilt home for Christmas.

Leynes-Santos, Nakama, Pacheco, Takahashi, Takamura, Tavares and Yang all attend ‘Īao Intermediate; Hong, Kaneshiro, Miller and Pontes go to Kamehameha Schools Maui; and Laloulu goes to Maui Waena Intermediate. 

Only the coaches have changed for this group.

Fujii was the manager for this team and is assisted by Lester Nakama and Kory Takamura. Last season, Daniel Bolduc was the manager, assisted by Kevin Constantino and Ian Shimabuku.

On Sunday, Venezuela’s Francys Sandoval, the only female pitcher in the tournament, kept the Maui team off-balance for the first four innings, allowing five hits, four runs, three earned runs, walking two and striking out four. Sandoval left with a 12-4 lead.

“We knew she could throw hard and she had a pretty good breaking ball to back that up,” Fujii said. “So we kind of knew what she had but when you’re up there, it’s a different story and she was keeping us off-balance with the curveball and fastball.”

This summer, despite Sunday’s loss, the Maui team outscored opponents 182-29. 

This team came up short of becoming just the third Maui Little League team ever to win a world championship. The first two were Central East Maui Little League teams from 2016 at the Intermediate level and in 2019 at the Senior League (13-16) level.

This team joins a Maui Little Little team from Kīhei in 2016 to win a national championship before falling in the world championship game. That team did so in the now-defunct Big (16-18) League level. 

“It’s one for the books, that’s for sure for them,” Fujii said of the rare accomplishment of the last two summers.

Maui fell behind 7-0 in the top of the first inning on Sunday when Venezuela pounded out five hits and took advantage of two Maui errors. The Maui team had given up just six runs in 18 innings — and committed just one error — at the World Series entering Sunday’s game.

The big blow in the top of the first was a two-run double by Venezuela’s Hector Zurita. Maui got a run back in the bottom of the first when Pacheco scored on a single to left field by Tavares, who finished with eight hits in four games at the World Series.

Hong was 2-for-2 with a run and an RBI Sunday, but no other Maui player had more than one hit. Nakama and Miller each had doubles.

Venezuela pounded out 13 hits against five Maui pitchers. Eduardo Celiz smacked a two-run double in the top of the third inning to push the score to 9-1 and a Maui throwing error allowed another run to score.

In the top of the fifth, Venezuela pushed the lead to 12-2 on a solo home run by Jose Vergara, bringing the 10-run mercy rule in to play. Maui got out of a two-on, no-out jam from there when Tavares made a spectacular catch in center field and Magno started a double play from second base to end the inning.

In the bottom of the fifth inning, needing a run to avoid the mercy rule and keep playing, Takahashi singled and Miller doubled. After an out, Yang knocked in Takahashi on a ground out and Hong singled to score Miller to make it 12-4.

A pair of Venezuela errors in the sixth allowed Takamura and Leynes Santos to score to make it 12-6 and in the seventh Nakama doubled and scored on a single by Laloulu in the seventh inning to account for the final score.

This is just the latest chapter in a long list of remarkable youth baseball accomplishments for Maui.

“These bunch of boys, they’re a good group of kids and as they keep growing together and they keep playing ball, the sky’s the limit,” Fujii said. “I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them.”

“Monday Morning Maui Sports” columns appear weekly on Monday mornings with updates on local sports in the Maui Interscholastic League and elsewhere around Maui County. Please send column ideas — anything having to do with sports in Maui County — as well as results and photos to rob@hjinow.org.