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BANGOR – The U.S. West team has made a habit of down-to-the-wire games in this week’s Senior League World Series. With the exception of Thursday’s win over Bangor, the West team from Pearl City, Hawaii, hadn’t beaten a team by more than three runs.
Except for the circumstances – a win-or-go-home semifinal against the U.S. East team – Friday’s game was no different. Once again, Pearl City came through in a close game, edging defending champion Freehold Township, N.J., 4-3 for a berth in Saturday’s World Series title game.
“This means a whole lot,” said winning pitcher Jason Rasa. “Being here is an honor but getting to the championship game is even better.”
Pearl City, now 5-0, will face Urbandale, Iowa, in a 2:30 p.m. game at Mansfield Stadium.
Pearl City becomes the second team from Hawaii to advance to the final game in two years. Hilo, Hawaii, won the 2003 title.
“We expected to do the same thing as [Hilo],” said first baseman Kellen Ushijima, who had an RBI single in Hawaii’s third-inning rally. “We were hoping to get this far and really compete. We tried to go undefeated all the way.”
Both teams had just five hits apiece and the East had no errors. For Hawaii, it came down to moving runners around via speed on the basepaths, sacrifices and patience at the plate.
The winning run came in the bottom of the fourth of a 3-3 game.
With one out, Matthew Tanaid was hit by a pitch, then pinch runner Peter Lee stole second base. A walk and a wild pitch later, Lee was at third. He scored on Rorry Nakayama’s sacrifice fly to center.
Down one run, the East had a chance to tie the game in the top of the seventh. Speedy A.J. Rusbarsky had walked and chugged all the way to third on a Ryan Cuneo single to get into scoring position.
But Rasa had already induced two outs, so when New Jersey’s Jason Nardi hit a fly ball into foul territory, there was nothing more the East could do than watch left fielder Peter Lee make the game-ending catch.
“That’s baseball. We were one error, one passed ball, one hit away from tying the game,” New Jersey manager Charles Wilmot said. “… There were a lot of high points. We didn’t quite hit the ball the way we could but overall, going through this entire tournament, we’re pleased.”
Freehold Township stranded seven baserunners.
New Jersey looked to be well on its way with a 3-0 lead after the top of the third but Hawaii answered immediately with three runs in the bottom of the inning. A two-out hit-by-pitch sparked the rally and Ushijima had his RBI single to score Shannon Liu.
New Jersey’s Brian Cooney reached on an error to lead off the fourth, but Rasa got three straight outs from his defense.
“My split [fingered fastball] was working pretty well today but I couldn’t control my fastball in the beginning of the game,” Rasa said. “My off-speed was what helped me today. I just found my groove and started throwing strikes again.”
U.S. WEST 4, U.S. EAST 3
(SLWS Semifinal)
Freehold Twp., N.J. (3-2) Pearl City, Hawaii (5-0)
Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI
Hayes, cf 3 1 0 0 Nakayama, cf 1 1 1
Rusbarsky, ss 2 0 2 1 Muraoka, rf 0 0
Cuneo, 1b 4 0 2 1 Acosta, ss 2 1 0
Nardi, p 4 0 0 1 Liu, 3b 2 1 0 0
Wilmot, 2b-p 3 0 0 0 Ushijima, 1b 3 0 1
Cooney, 3b 3 0 1 0 Rasa, p 2 0 1 1
Baggitt, c 3 0 0 0 Domingo, c 2 0 0
Majewski, rf-lf 1 1 0 0 Kiyota, c 1 0
MacLean, rf 1 0 0 0 Tampos, rf 2 0 0
Archer, lf-2b 1 1 0 0 DeKneef, cf-rf 1 0
Whitley, lf 1 0 0 0 Lee, lf 2 1 0 0
Tanaid, lf 0 0 0 0
Quillopo, 2b 1 0 0 0
Sugitaya, 2b 0 0 0 0
Totals 26 3 5 3 Totals 19 4 5 3
U.S. East 003 000 0 – 3
U.S. West 003 100 x – 4
E-Liu, Rasa; LOB-U.S. West 1, U.S. East 7; DP-Liu-Ushijima; S-Acosta; SF-Nakayama; SB-Archer; Nakayama, Lee
U.S. East IP H R ER BB SO
Nardi (L,0-2) 4 4 4 4 2 2
Wilmot 2 1 0 0 2 1
U.S. West IP H R ER BB SO
Rasa (W,2-0) 7 5 3 3 4 1
HBP-Archer by Rasa; Muraoka, Tanaid by Nardi; WP-Nardi 2; T-1:52; ATT-200 (est.)
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