Hawaii’s Kea is too much for Georgia

SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — After pitching his 15th strikeout to end the game, Hawaii’s Aukai Kea pumped his fists and let out a shout for all to hear.

Within seconds, Kea’s teammates sprinted to the pitcher’s mound to congratulate their team’s ace, hugging and pounding on him. Hawaii shut out Georgia 3-0 as Kea’s complete game sealed his team’s berth in the Little League World Series championship.

“I just pitched my heart out,” Kea said. “Did as best I could.”

About 60 feet away, the Hawaii faithful chanted “Hono-lulu!” in the stands over the first base dugout. As his home state dealt with record rainfall from Tropical Storm Lane 4,000 miles away from South Williamsport, Kea took full note of the fans’ energy.

“When I was on the mound, I could hear them and I was like, ‘That’s why we’re here. That’s who we’re playing for. We’re playing for home, playing for Hawaii,’” Kea said.

The U.S. champions will take on South Korea for the tournament championship today. Choi Ji-hyung hit his third home run of the tournament and struck out seven over 4 2/3 innings Saturday to lead South Korea to a 2-1 win over Japan in the international championship game.

Even though Georgia never advanced a runner past first base, the game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning, when a pair of pinch hitters provided the spark Hawaii needed.

With two outs, Hunter Nishina hustled to turn an ordinary bloop hit to shallow left field into a double. One batter later, John De la Cruz picked up his first hit of the tournament, breaking the deadlock by knocking a single to right-center field.

“We always talk about how it’s ‘we over me,’ and he did what we needed to score a run,” catcher Bruce Boucher said, referencing the slogan that appeared on the back of the Honolulu team’s jerseys during its run to South Williamsport.

Hawaii used another two-out rally to add the game’s final two runs in the fifth, with an RBI triple from Boucher followed by Jace Souza’s run-scoring single.

While the team from Peachtree City played Hawaii tighter than any other team in the tournament, it was held scoreless in all 17 innings played between the two teams in the double-elimination bracket. Much of that was due to Kea, who hit a walk-off tworun homer to end the teams’ 11-inning game last week.

Georgia shortstop Tai Peete was the only player who mustered any sort of success in either game against Kea. Peete, one of the standout players in the entire tournament, was hugged by members of Hawaii’s team during its celebration.

“He’s a cool guy,” Kea said. “We just tried to pick him up because that’s what friends do