Honolulu will head back to the Little League World Series, and take its shot at title No. 3.
Bronson Fermahin pitched 52⁄3 innings with one walk and 11 strikeouts as Honolulu beat Fullerton (Southern California) 4-1 in the final of the Little League Major Division (ages 9-12) West Regional on Thursday in San Bernardino, Calif.
Pitcher Mason Mitani recorded the final out for the save.
Honolulu advances to the World Series in Williamsport, Pa., which starts Wednesday. Honolulu will open the tournament Aug. 15 against the opening-round winner of Texas East (Southwest) and the Metro Regional champion.
Gerald Oda, the Honolulu manager, led the team to World Series titles in 2018 and 2022.
Fermahin, who recorded the win in Honolulu’s first regional game, allowed seven hits and no earned runs with one walk and 17 strikeouts over 91⁄3 tournament innings.
Fermahin, Logan Brokaw and Mitani combined to allow 16 hits and two earned runs with five walks and 36 strikeouts over 20 innings.
Honolulu also beat Fullerton 1-0 on Saturday and Menlo Park (Northern California) 4-3 in eight innings on Monday. Honolulu finished with only nine hits in the tournament.
On Thursday against Fullerton, Honolulu’s first two batters were retired in the bottom of the first inning, but the Hawaii representative scored twice, on Evan Crawford’s RBI single and Kobe Lumford’s hit by pitch with the bases loaded.
Fullerton had runners at first and second with no outs in the second, but Fermahin struck out three consecutive batters.
Honolulu went up 3-0 in the bottom half on Kuana Payanal’s one-out double, which scored Mitani.
Fermahin also struck out three consecutive batters in the fourth.
Honolulu took a 4-0 lead in the fifth on Mitani’s leadoff homer to left.
Fullerton made it 4-1 in the sixth on a two-out fielding error by the shortstop. It was Honolulu’s second error of the tournament.
Fermahin reached the 85-pitch threshold on the batter and was replaced by Mitani with a runner on first.
Mitani went to 3-0 on the batter, battled back to get a full count, then caught a comebacker to end it.
Mitani also picked up the win in Honolulu’s first game and recorded the save in the second.
Source: The Garden Island