SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. — The Sunnyside Little League team came out on the short end of an instant-replay review and the tiebreaking procedure Monday against the Hawaiian representative from the Central Maui Little League.
Sunnyside scored one run in the top of the eighth, but Central Maui answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning to earn a 6-5 victory on the first day of the Little League Western Regional.
As a result, Sunnyside will play Tuesday at noon against Paseo Verde from Henderson, Nevada, in an elimination game. Sunnyside must win to advance in the tournament. The prospective opponent, should it win, will be the winner of Tuesday’s Southern California-Utah game. If Sunnyside does advance, that game will be played Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Central Maui will play in the Western Regional semifinal against Granite Bay from Northern California on Thursday at 6 p.m. The winner of that game will play in the regional finals on Saturday night.
Monday night’s game went to a tiebreaker in the eighth inning, where the last batter to make an out in the seventh inning started the following inning on second base. That was Sunnyside catcher Jordan Mayboca.
Right fielder Jorge Zazueta hit the first pitch to the fence in left field for an RBI double. Zazueta advanced to third when Angel Armenta Jr. hit a ground ball to short and the throw to third was bobbled. Armenta reached first base, and Sunnyside had two runners on base with no outs.
Francisco Rivero hit a grounder right at the third baseman. Armenta was thrown out at second and Rivero beat the throw to first. With Juan Hernandez at bat, Rivero took off for second as part of a double steal.
Central Maui second baseman Nick Nashiwa cut in front of the base and threw back to catcher Duke Aloy. Zazueta came up short by a couple of steps and was tagged out by Aloy. Hernandez was called out on strikes to end the top of the eighth.
“That’s a play we practice every day,” Central Maui coach Brad Lung said after the game. “There was excellent execution.”
Hawaii started its half of the inning with Marley Sebastian on second. He advanced to third on Aloy’s bunt when the throw was late. Aloy reached first base safely.
Isaac Imamura hit a fly ball to right which was not caught, leaving two runners on the bases. Bransyn Hong singled to left to score Aloy with the winning run.
Sunnyside also got a bad break in the bottom of the fourth inning after an instant-replay review. With two out, Aloy singled to center to move Nashiwa to second. Imamura hit a grounder to second and the umpire called Aloy out in a close play.
The call was reviewed and reversed. Hong then drove in three runners with a double, and scored on Jaren Pascual’s infield single.
Sunnyside tied the game in the top of the fifth when Juan Abril was hit by a pitch and Cristobal Lorta hit a two-run homer to left field. Lorta was the losing pitcher, although he did well by striking out eight batters in 3ª innings.
Arizona's Cristobal Lorta during a Little League regional tournament baseball game, Monday, Aug. 5, 2019, in San Bernardino, Calif. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong)
The three runs given up by Hernandez were unearned. He got two batters out in the first inning on check swings, and showed good poise in using his changeup.
“We’ll have to do it the hard way and win four games,” to advance, said Sunnyside manager Franciso Rivero, who will start Juan Abril in today’s game. “We are confident we can do it. The kids will be more aggressive.”
