Sweetwater Valley earned a spot in the Little League World Series with a 12-10 victory over Waipio in Saturday’s championship game of the Little League West Regional tournament in San Bernardino.
Waipio trailed 12-4 entering the bottom of the sixth and final inning, then combined five singles, three doubles and a Sweetwater Valley error for six runs. The final out came when Sage-Manuel Koahou was caught in a rundown, trying to score on a throwing error.
The all-star team from the Bonita-based league is scheduled to play its first game in the Little League World Series Thursday in South Williamsport, PA, against its counterparts from the Kentucky’s Bowling Green Eastern Little League, the Great Lakes Regional champion.
Sweetwater Valley is the 11th team from San Diego County to qualify for the Little League World Series and third in seven years.
The all-star team from the Park View Little League was the 2009 World Series champion while the team representing the Eastlake Little League, which is also based in Chula Vista, lost in the 2013 championship game.
Sweetwater Valley combined singles by Levi Mendez and Walker Lannom, a double by Nate Nankil, two hit batters and two errors and two passed balls by Waipio for five runs in the top of the first.
Waipio, the Hawaii state champion, responded with four runs in its half of the first, all with two outs. Koahou doubled in the first two runs and scored, along with Charles Winchester, who singled, when Alexander Armenti reached on an error.
Sweetwater Valley scored in each of the next four innings.
Dante Schmidt doubled in Lannom, who singled, in the second. Ariel Armas singled in the third and scored on Mendez’s ground out.
Lannom homered leading off the fourth. Armas doubled in Jacob Baptista, who singled, later in the inning to give Sweetwater Valley a 9-4 lead.
Sweetwater Valley added three runs in the fifth. Mendez led off with a single and scored on an error. Baptista’s home run drove in Nankil, who doubled.
Baptista and Lannom both went three-for-four, while Armas, Mendez and Nankil each had two hits in Sweetwater Valley’s 15-hit attack.
Starter Antonio Andrade was credited with the victory, allowing four runs (none earned) and six hits in four innings, striking out four and walking two. Mendez pitched two innings for the save, allowing six runs (five earned) and eight hits, striking out four and not walking a batter.
Sweetwater Valley outscored its opponents, 50-22, in its four games in the regional, including a 16-9 victory over Waipio on Sunday in the opening game for both teams.
Sweetwater Valley is 16-0 in its four tournaments, including winning the Southern California championship to qualify for the regional.
— City News Service