Ryan Keanu’s start to the 2021 Little League World Series wasn’t the one he had hoped for.
But the Honolulu Little Leaguer showed it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.
After giving up a leadoff home run, the right-hander settled in to keep Manchester in check as Honolulu earned a 9-1 win to open play in the Hank Aaron Championship bracket in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.
Honolulu will now face Hastings (Nebraska) in the second round Sunday at Lamade Stadium (5 a.m., ESPN). Hastings dropped Toms River (New Jersey) 5-2 in its opener
“That was kind of our goal, to get the first win to get the ball rolling,” Honolulu coach Brandon Sardihna said. “It was a slow start, but we came back strong after that.”
Manchester kicked things off with a bang. On the second pitch of the game, Arlen Peyman smacked a home run over the center field fence.
But Honolulu replied in the bottom of the second. With the bases loaded, Chasen Uyetake’s single brought home two runs, with a third run coming home when the throw back into the infield got away. Uyetake later scored on a grounder to short to make it a 4-1 game.
In the bottom of the fourth, Honolulu added four runs to break the game open. The inning was highlighted by a two-run single from Kaikea Patoc-Young to make it 7-1.
Keanu threw 70 pitches in the complete-game win. He finished with seven strikeouts and walked none. Teammate Kekoa Payanal finished with two hits, the only player in the game with multiple hits, and added three runs scored. Zack Bagoyo also drove in a run.
“We’re one of 16 of the best teams in the country here,” Manchester coach Rob Rastelli said. “We just went up against one of the 16 best teams in the country. Hawaii has great hitters, they make good contact, they drive the ball. We just hit the ball where we were, and they hit the ball where we weren’t. It’s kind of what it came down to.”
Ryan Gorman had the only other hit for Manchester, an infield single to leadoff the top of the fourth. Peyman, Eli Bucko, Sam Luby and Paul Virdokian all reach on errors.
Peyman was also the starting pitcher. He threw 70 pitches over 3 1/3 innings in the loss, striking out six and walking none. Jacob Budarz threw 36 pitches over 1 2/3 innings of relief.
Hawaii has had plenty of success at the Little League World Series, winning titles in 2005, 2008 and 2018. A team from Maui was the 2019 World Series runner-up. One of Hawaii’s players, Patrick Murray, had an older brother Chandler who played on the 2018 championship team, and one of the coaches, Kevin Bagoyo, whose son Zack is the leadoff batter, played on a Hawaii team that went to the World Series in 1988.