Central Maui ousted from regionals

By Fred Guzman
ESPN550.com

The Central Maui Little League All-Stars had a chance to take care of matters on their own. A win in their final pool game against Northern California would have put then into the semifinals of the Western Regionals.

But Loomis-Eureka jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the top of the first inning and held on for a 5-3 win, improving its tournament record to 4-0, outscoring its opponents by a 26-5.

The loss took Central Maui's fate out of its hands. Now, Maui needed some serious help in the form of a decisive victory by Arizona over Nevada in order to go through.

By the fifth inning of last night's game in San Bernardino, it appeared as if Central Maui's prayers were about to be answered.

Having allowed more than three runs, Nevada lost its chance to advance courtesy of a runs-allowed tie-breaker edge over the Maui boys. But Nevada then scored five in the seventh, rallying to a 12-9 victory that put it in the semis and knocked Central Maui out of contention.

Central Maui showed a lot of grit in its final outing. Rossi Abordo pitched brilliantly after coming on in relief. Noa Apolo hit his third homer of the tourney. And Central Maui loaded the bases with two outs in the bottom of the six before hitting into a game-ending grounder.

SOCCER: Hawaii's Brian Ching started for the US in its World Cup qualifying match at Mexico. The Americans jumped out to a 1-0 lead nine minutes in, but ended up suffering yet another loss at Azteca Stadium on a late goal as Mexico pulled out a 2-1 victory. The US is now 0-23-1 in games played in the 7,200-foot altitude of Mexico City.

SHANE GOES DEEP: Shane Victorino did his part in welcoming legendary right-hander Pedro Martinez in his debut for the Phillies on Wednesday. Victorino tripled in the first inning and homered in the third, scored twice and drove in a pair of runs in helping the Phillies to a 12-5 road romp past the Chicago Cubs. It was Victorino's ninth homer of the season and his eighth triple, tying him for second place in that category in the National League. His 135 hits also rank sixth in the NL, which his batting average currently stands at .310.

________________________________________________________________
Sent via the WebMail system at mail.pacificradiogroup.com