Hawaii Wins Little League Title

By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 24, 2008 8:56 PM CDT
Hawaii Wins Little League Title
Hawaii's Tanner Tokunaga, center, is welcomed by teammates Jedd Andrade, top left, and Kainoa Fong (2) after hitting a second-inning, two-run homer.   (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

Hawaii's mini-mashers got a little help from Mexico's miscues to win a fourth straight Little League World Series title for the United States. Tanner Tokunaga smacked two homers and Iolana Akau added a solo blast as the boys from Waipahu, Hawaii, defeated Matamoros, Mexico, 12-3, to take the biggest prize in youth sports.

Hawaii was helped by three Mexico errors. Two Hawaii runs scored on passed balls, and another came in on a bases-loaded walk. But Mexico's lineup is loaded with dangerous hitters, so the lead wasn't safe until reliever Christian Donahue got Fernando Villegas to ground out to shortstop. A team from Ewa Beach, Hawaii, started the US winning streak in 2005, with Little Leaguers from Georgia taking the prize the previous two years. (More Little League World Series stories.)

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