There were tears in North Hawaii’s dugout Sunday, and they weren’t tears of joy.
Strikeouts and errors had the Little Leaguers down, but three rallies lifted their spirits and vaulted them into the district championship game.
Justin Lina drove in the winning run in the bottom of the seventh, and North Hawaii downed Ka’u 11-10 in the ages 11-12 tournament in Kapaau.
North Hawaii will have to beat Hilo twice on Monday, starting with a 10:30 a.m. contest, to win the title.
“We just have to play like we did (Sunday),” North Hawaii coach Vern Karratti said. “We played strong.
“We had kids crying, but we shook it off and played strong defense.”
Ka’u was one strike from taking the game to extra innings, but Lina’s third hit of the game, a single to left-center, scored Ryan Kealoha, who had doubled.
“(Justin) was facing heavy pressure,” Karratti said.
So was North Hawaii early on as it faced two deficits.
Kaikea Kaupu-Manini, Weston Davis and Jeremiah Nurial-Dacalio each drove in two runs for Ka’u.
Trailing 10-7, North Hawaii took advantage of two errors in the sixth to tie the game.
“We were down, bit I told them we needed to let it go,” Karratti said.
Trey Aiona took over in the sixth and finished the game to get the victory. Isaiah Lorenzo had two hits for North Hawaii.
Kaupu-Manini was the losing pitcher.
On Saturday, Hilo (2-0) beat North Hawaii (1-1) 7-4. The winner advances to states, July 25-28 in Waimea.
