Hawaiian Punch
Northwest champs put up 10-spot to down Maitland
 By
Nick Williams
After what Hawaii coach Layton Aliviado revealed
following his team’s 10-0 rout over Maitland, Florida,
it’s easy to see why his team has scored a total of 27
runs in their three pool play games.
They may have help from above.
“We bless our bats,” Aliviado said. “We put all the bats
together in the middle and say a prayer. It’s working
for us. Maybe the man upstairs is helping us.”
It was those hallowed bats that knocked in seven two-out
RBI to help put up a 10 runs against a previously
undefeated Maitland team.
Both teams came into the game with 2-0 records and had
already clinched spots in the semifinals.
“We didn’t tell the kids we were in [the semifinals]
regardless,” said Maitland skipper Sid Cash. “But that
stuff gets around. I think we played like a team that
knew we were in regardless.”
“In tournaments we go hard all the way,” Aliviado said
about his team’s relentless attack. “If we can jump on
the opponent, we feel a little bit more comfortable
because we got the lead. We can relax and focus.”
Hawaii didn’t wait long to pounce on Maitland starter
Mike Tomlinson
Layson Aliviado led things off by drawing a walk. Two
outs later, Sheyne Baniaga stroked the first pitch he
saw from Tomlinson out of the ballpark and off the chain
link fence beyond the bullpen in left-centerfield.
In the third, Tomlinson surrendered a single to Aliviado,
and then hit Kini Enos with a 3-2 pitch to put two on
with nobody out.
The next batter, starting pitcher Alaka’i Aglipay,
hammered the ball to right field. The ball hit off Chris
Miller’s glove and fell to the grass, but the outfielder
quickly recovered and hit cutoff man Dante Bichette, who
alertly fired to third to get Aliviado, who had to wait
and see if the ball would be caught before leaving
second.
After Baniaga popped out to third for the second out,
Hawaii once again needed a big two-out hit to cash in on
the scoring chance.
 Catcher
Michael Memea delivered that big hit when he used his
blessed bat to swat a high fly ball that just cleared
the left field wall and the glove of Maitland
leftfielder Eddie Abramson for a three-run homer.
“I thought it was going to get caught,” Memea said.
Quentin Guevara added another run with an RBI single
that brought in Von Fe’ao (double) from second, capping
the four-run inning and upping the score to 6-0 in favor
of Hawaii.
Some of the Hawaii players might have tossed a couple
gloves into the pile of bats before today’s game,
because their gloves were just as deified.
The Northwest champs turned three double plays,
extinguishing any trouble Aglipay got into. And he
didn’t get into much. Aglipay surrendered only four hits
and three walks, striking out seven on his way to a
complete-game shutout.
“It feels comfortable knowing that your defense can back
you up,” Aglipay said.
“We hit the ball hard, we jus hit it at people,” Cash
said. “They got three double plays. Three double plays
is very unusual in Little League.”
In the fifth, Hawaii decided not to wait until their
last out to do some damage.
Aglipay led off the inning with a double and scored a
batter later on Memea’s double and fourth RBI of the
game. Memea stole third on the fourth ball of Fe’ao’s
walk, putting runners at the corners.
With Guevara at the plate, Fe’ao took off for second.
Bichette cut off catcher Kyle Hamner’s throw and gunned
it home to try and get a streaking Memea, who broke for
home after Fe’ao drew the throw to second. Memea slid in
safely under the tag of Hamner, completing the double
steal and giving Hawaii an 8-0 lead.
After a strikeout to Guevara, Ty Tirpak flashed the
divinity of his bat by stroking a base hit to bring in
Fe’ao for the ninth run of the game and the seventh
two-out RBI.
“Whatever chance we get to score, we just go hard,”
coach Aliviado said. “We try to counter on every
opportunity we get.”
Game Photos
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