Honolulu’s Little League Champions
August 29, 2018
On Sunday, August 26, an all-star baseball team from Honolulu, Hawaii, won the Little League World Series by defeating a team from Seoul, South Korea, 3-0. The Little League World Series is a competition played each year in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, among kids aged 11 to 13. The tournament, first played in 1947, includes 16 Little League teams from the United States and the rest of the world. Little League Baseball is the world’s largest organized youth-sports program, with nearly 180,000 teams.
The Honolulu Little League all-stars flash the traditional Hawaiian shaka “hang loose” hand greeting after winning the 2018 Little League World Series on Aug. 26, 2018. Credit: Courtesy of Little League Baseball and Softball
The ballplayers from Honolulu Little League dominated the final at South Williamsport’s Howard J. Lamade Stadium. Starting pitcher Ka’olu Holt went the distance, limiting the South Koreans to just two hits and no runs over the game’s six innings. Holt fanned eight batters and surrendered just one walk. On the offensive side, Honolulu first baseman Mana Lau Kong homered on the first pitch of the bottom of the first inning, igniting a boisterous Hawaii dugout. Seoul starter Yeong Hyeon Kim settled in after that, but he was the victim of his own lack of control in the bottom of the third. With the bases loaded on a hit and two walks, a wild pitch allowed Honolulu’s Zachary Won to score from third base, and an errant throw on the play brought Taylin Oana home from second to make the score 3-0. Hawaii played flawless defense, and Holt recorded the final out in the sixth on a swinging strikeout.
2018 Little League Baseball World Series.
Credit: © Little League Baseball
After a joyful celebration in front of the pitcher’s mound, members of the Honolulu team thanked their South Korean opponents. They then raced to the center field wall to rub the bronze bust of the stadium’s namesake, Howard J. Lamade—a longstanding tradition for the winning team. (Lamade was a Pennsylvania newspaper publisher and a key figure in the early years of Little League Baseball.)
The Honolulu all-stars rolled through the United States bracket of the tournament, winning all five of their games by a combined score of 26-3, including a 3-0 win over Peachtree City (Georgia) American Little League to reach the World Series final. The championship was the third for the state of Hawaii: the Ewa Beach team took the title in 2005, and the little leaguers from Waipio won it all in 2008. The Seoul, South Korea, squad fought through the tough international tournament, edging the all-stars from Kawaguchi, Japan, 2-1 to reach the final. South Korean teams previously won the Little League World Series in 1984, 1985, and 2014. The 2018 tournament’s 32 games drew a total of nearly 500,000 fans.
