World Series JournalWorld Series JournalAmerican Legion Baseballsince 1926 20aug2013

87th annual

California, Hawaii advance from 1st-round loss to championship Tuesday

Napoleon, Ohio 09:30 AM Minnesota 1

Burnsville, Minn. 45:00 PM New Jersey 7

Waipahu, Hawaii 45:00 PM New Jersey 8

Brooklawn, N.J. 58:30 PM New Jersey 4 New Jersey (45-9)

Petaluma, Calif. 51:00 PM Louisiana 6

Gonzales, La. 88:30 PM Louisiana 2

Branford, Conn. 0 8:30 PM California (35-14) 8:30 PM National8:30 PM N. Carolina 5 Champion

Wilmington, N.C. 5Minnesota 1

California) 6 1:00 PM California 141:00 PM California 3 5:00 PM

Connecticut 3

Ohio 5 Louisiana 49:30 AM Hawaii 12 5 PM Hawaii (25-5)

Hawaii 9 5:00 PM Hawaii 5N. Carolina 3

Carl HennellWSJ Editor

SHELBY, N.C.—Championship Tuesday is set. The final day of the 2013 Ameri-can Legion Baseball World Series will see Petaluma, Calif., playing Waipahu, Hawaii, at 5 p.m. for the right to square off against Brooklawn, N.J., in the national championship at 8:30 p.m. Hawaii eliminated Gonzales, La., 5-4 in 12 innings Monday night. Following that, California rallied from a 4-0 deficit to

beat New Jersey, 14-4. Brooklawn, N.J., earned a berth into the championship game by beating Louisi-ana Sunday night in the undefeated game. But it couldn’t eliminate California Mon-day night. So it awaits the winner between California and Hawaii Tuesday. Both California and Hawaii have crawled back from first-round losses. Ha-waii did the same thing at the Northwest Regional Tournament in Eugene, Ore., last week to get to the ALWS. If Hawaii beats California, it will forge a rematch of its first-round loss,

when it lost to New Jersey on a walk-off wild pitch in the 11th inning.

Winner will play New Jersey for all the marbles

20Aug2013Page 2 World Series Journal

Waipahu, Hawaii, beats, eliminates Louisiana in 12

“It’s all heart. We don’t play baseball just because it is a sport. We play with heart because

we love the game of baseball that much.”-Waipahu, Hawaii, catcher Austyn Nagamine

Carl HennellWSJ Editor

SHELBY, N.C.—Errors will kill you at this level. And that’s what happened to Gonzales, La., Monday evening at the American Legion Baseball World Series on Veterans Field in Keeter Stadium. Hawaii pitcher Tanner Tokunaga, who helped lead Hawaii to the Little League World Series Championship in 2008, seem-ingly put his team on his shoulders in a loser-out semifinal, pitching for 10 innings and scoring the winning run in the 12th inning to help lift Waipahu to a 5-4 victory over Louisiana. Hawaii (26-5) advances to play Peta-luma, Calif., (34-14), which hung a loss on Brooklawn, N.J., late Monday, Tuesday at 5 p.m. Louisiana tried to use late-game dramat-ics to beat Hawaii. Trailing 4-2 with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and runners on second and third base, second baseman Robert Podorsky sent the game to extra innings by hitting a 3-2 pitch into a bad-hop groundball off the shortstop’s chest. He picked it up and fired to first base, but the speedy Podorsky beat out the throw. The grounder proved to be a two-run single because Grant McCrory, who singled, was running on the 3-2, two-out pitch from sec-ond base. He rounded third base and scored without a throw to tie the game. Blaine Schexnayder, who was hit by a pitch, scored in front of him. Louisiana threatened to walk-off with a win after that in each the ninth, 10th and 11th innings, but left two runners on base in each of those innings. It was a tough 24 hours for Gonzales, La. It lost to Brooklawn, N.J., in the unde-feated semifinal Sunday night. Then it was eliminated by Hawaii less than 24 hours later. So close, yet so far away. Harder to swallow still? It out-hit Hawaii, 10-5, in the loss. Its season ended with a 48-6 record. Tokunaga used a low-80 mph fastball with a curveball, slider and changeup to

spread 10 hits and four walks over 10 in-nings, using 131 pitches. He struck out only three. His defense committed just one error, but it was a costly one as only three of the four runs he allowed were earned. “I’ve never pitched past seven innings before,” Tokunaga said. “But I knew this was the last game and it was do or die. I had to push it and give it my all. “I didn’t really have all my pitches. My changeup wasn’t there. Most of the time I could get my curveball and my cutter over but I didn’t really have most of my pitches today. I just tried to work ahead in the count, and use what I could use to pitch to contact. I was just letting my defense work for me because I know I am not a dominant pitcher so I just had to throw strikes because I knew

my defense would back me up.” Hawaii catcher Austyn Nagamine said Tokunaga was in better control that he thought. “His slider was working very well to-day,” he said. “He was actually shutting them down until they tied it up in the bottom of the ninth. His fastball had a little bit of move-ment. He does throw two different ones, one straight and one that can move a little bit. He was just locating really well. Not many strikeouts, just a defensive effort. “I was mixing it up with his slider and got him to throw a fastball for a strike be-cause they were taking the first strike. Then I would come with the slider on the outside,

See HAWAII, PAge 4

WAIPAHu, HAWAII, PItcHer/center fIelder tAnner tokunAgA scores the go-ahead run in the top of the 12th inning Monday night against Gonzales, La., in the loser-out semifinal of the American Legion Baseball World Series in Shelby, N.C. Hawaii won, 5-4, to advance to the ALWS champi-onship.

Eldon Lindsay /American Legion

Carl HennellWSJ Editor

SHELBY, N.C.—Check out this inning scoreline: five runs on no hits and no errors. That’s what happened Monday night in the seventh inning between Petaluma, Calif., and Brooklawn, N.J., when three New Jersey pitchers combined to give up seven free passes to eight batters and California rallied from a 4-0 deficit to win, 14-4. California has responded from a first-round loss to Gonzales, La., to play on the final day of the 2013 American Legion Base-ball World Series. The boys from Petaluma (35-14) will play Waipahu, Hawaii (26-5), Tuesday night at 5 p.m. for a berth into the

championship game and a rematch against New Jersey, which earned a berth into the chipper by beating Louisiana in the unde-feated semifinal. California shortstop Anthony Bender and center fielder Charles Parnow each had two hits and three RBIs in the victory. Trailing 4-0 in the sixth inning, Bender put California on the scoreboard, leading off by mashing a 2-0 pitch over the left-center field wall. Parnow followed five batters later by hitting an 0-1 pitch into an RBI single into center. Ahead 4-2 the next inning, the wheels fell off of Brooklawn as it finished the game by giving up 17 walks. That tied an ALWS

record set by Maynard, Ohio, in 1986. Brooklawn set a record in 1984 with 16 walks. Brooklawn actually out-hit Petaluma, 10-8. Shortstop Phil Dickinson, catcher Jonathan Gonzalez and Anthony Har-rold each had two hits in the loss. California third baseman Robert Busse and Parnow each had three RBIs in the victory. First baseman Weston Bryan and right fielder Ryan Walsh each added two RBIs.

Page 320Aug2013 World Series Journal

California walks away from N.J.

Petaluma, CA 14, Brooklawn, NJ 4Petaluma, CA AB R H BIChase Stafford 2b 4 2 1 0Ryan Haug c 3 2 0 0Anthony Bender ss 5 3 2 1Robert Busse 3b 5 2 1 3Weston Bryan 1b 3 2 1 2Blake Patrick dh 5 1 0 0Ryan Walsh rf 2 1 1 2Charles Parnow cf 4 0 2 3Vinnie Albano lf 1 1 0 1Connor Littleton p 0 0 0 0 Nicholas Marks p 0 0 0 0 Dominic Garihan p 0 0 0 0Totals...... 32 14 8 12Brooklawn, NJ AB R H BIPhil Dickinson ss 4 0 2 1Fran Kinsey rf 5 0 0 0Sean Breen 2b 5 1 1 0Nick Cieri 3b 4 1 1 0Jonathan Gonzalez c 5 0 2 0Tyler Mondile dh 2 1 0 0Anthony Harrold 1b 4 1 2 0Pete Farlow cf/lf 4 0 1 1John Theckston lf 3 0 1 1 Mike Garofolo pr/cf 1 0 0 0Steve Mondile p 0 0 0 0 Matt Parr p 0 0 0 0 Dan Higgins p 0 0 0 0Totals...... 37 4 10 3Petaluma, CA........ 000 002 516 - 14 8 3Brooklawn, NJ....... 022 000 000 - 4 10 4E - Busse, R 2; Parnow, C; Dickinson, P; Breen, S; Gonza-lez, J; Harrold, A. DP - CA 2; NJ 1. LOB - CA 12; NJ 10. 2B - Bryan, W; Parnow, C. HR - Bender, A. HBP - Bryan,W; Albano, V. SH - Haug, R. SF - Albano, V.Petaluma, CA IP H R ER BB SOConnor Littleton 5.0 9 4 2 2 3Nicholas Marks W 1.0 1 0 0 2 0Dominic Garihan S 3.0 0 0 0 0 2Brooklawn, NJ IP H R ER BB SOSteve Mondile L 6.0 4 5 4 8 2Matt Parr 0.0 0 2 2 1 0Dan Higgins 3.0 4 7 4 8 2WP - Littleton, C; Higgins, D 2. HBP - by Mondile, S (Albano, V); by Parr, M (Bryan, W).Umpires - HP: Terry Myers 1B: Dave Brown 2B: Mark Mayle 3B: Jay DesantisStart: 8:40 pm Time: 3:30 Attendance: 6844Littleton, C faced 2 batters in the 6th.Mondile, S faced 3 batters in the 7th.Parr, M faced 2 batters in the 7th.Marks, N faced 3 batters in the 7th.

Petaluma, Calif., shortstoP

anthony Bender throws to first base

Monday night against Brooklawn, N.J., in a semifinal

of the American Le-gion Baseball World

Series in Shelby, N.C. Bender hit a

home run in the sixth inning to help

California rally from a 4-0 deficit and

beat New Jersey, 14-4, to live another

day at the ALWS. California will play

Hawaii for a chance to beat New Jer-

sey, which won the undefeated semifi-

nal Sunday night to earn a berth into the

championship.

Eldon Lindsay /American Legion

Will face Hawaii for berth into championship

20Aug2013Page 4 World Series Journal

National Tournament StatisticsTEAM BATTING G AvgWaipahu, HI 9 0.370Petaluma, CA 8 0.356Branford, CT 7 0.320Brooklawn, NJ 8 0.315Napoleon, OH 8 0.315Gonzales, LA 8 0.288Burnsville, MN 8 0.280Wilmington, NC 8 0.278Totals 32 0.318 TEAM PITCHING G ERAWilmington, NC 8 1.93Brooklawn, NJ 8 2.22Burnsville, MN 8 3.04Gonzales, LA 8 3.16Petaluma, CA 8 3.22Napoleon, OH 8 4.11Waipahu, HI 9 4.16Branford, CT 7 6.16Totals 32 3.45

TEAM FIELDING G PctNapoleon, OH 8 0.965Gonzales, LA 8 0.962Brooklawn, NJ 8 0.953Branford, CT 7 0.952Waipahu, HI 9 0.951Burnsville, MN 8 0.950Petaluma, CA 8 0.937Wilmington, NC 8 0.927Totals 32 0.950

Individual LeadersHITS

Tanner Tokunaga-HI 17 Reid Akau-HI 16 Brent Sakurai-HI 15 Austyn Nagamine-HI 15 Chase Stafford-CA 15

RUNS SCOREDTanner Tokunaga-HI 15Steven Linkous-NC 12Ryan Walsh-CA 11Chase Stafford-CA 114 tied with 10 run(s) scored

RUNS BATTED INNicholas Perrelli-CT 13Brent Sakurai-HI 11Chase Stafford-CA 113 tied with 10 RBI(s)

DOUBLESTanner Tokunaga-HI 5Jaraad Salas-HI 5Chase Stafford-CA 53 tied with 4 double(s)

TRIPLESBlake Patrick-CA 2Steven Linkous-NC 211 tied with 1 triple(s)

HOME RUNSCharles Parnow-CA 213 tied with 1 home run(s)

TOTAL BASESChase Stafford-CA 23Tanner Tokunaga-HI 22Charles Parnow-CA 20Steven Linkous-NC 206 tied with 18 total base(s)

STOLEN BASES SB-ATTSteven Linkous-NC 10-12Tanner Tokunaga-HI 7-8Fran Kinsey-NJ 6-6Robert Podorsky-LA 6-73 tied with 4 stolen base(s)

Continued from Page 1

backdoor or outside on the right corner. Then I would come with a changeup and they would foul it off, so I would come with another fastball outside so they couldn’t touch it if they swung. Then use a curveball to freeze them a little bit enough or get them to hit it into a little dinker of fly ball for our players to make plays. Late in the game, they started hitting the slider. I tried mixing in the curveballs a little bit but they were starting to get on base a little more. So we brought in our other pitcher (Josh Maglangit) who had a slower fastball and a lot of changeups. He was throwing way slower. They weren’t waiting back. They were all forward, but the pitch was too slow for them.” Maglangit allowed one hit and one walk over the final two inning to earn the victory. Tokunaga scored the winning run in the 12th inning after getting hit by a pitch with two outs. He stole second base, then scored on a throwing error by the Louisi-ana shortstop on a ground ball deep in the third base-shortstop hole. “I got beaned and then I was trying to take second because with a good batter up because even if I got out we’d have a good batter up next inning,” he said. “So I was just trying to make things happen.(On the ground ball that I scored on) I saw the ball go into the six hole, so he was going to have a tough play to get me. I saw that he threw it to one so I just kept running because I had to take a chance.” Louisiana starting pitcher Cole Stapler allowed two hits and five walks over seven innings while striking out five. He allowed no earned runs. Podorsky and designated hitter Austin Millet each went 2-for-4 with two RBIs, and catcher Jace Fairchild added two hits, in the losing ef-fort. And so Tokunaga has the rare privi-lege of playing for a LLWS and ALWS championship. “This has to be better because you have to use more heart here,” he said. “The bases are bigger and there are more things that can go wrong at this level. You have to play sharp all the time in this realm.”

Waipahu, HI 5, Gonzales, LA 4Waipahu, HI AB R H BITanner Tokunaga p/cf 4 2 0 0Brent Sakurai 3b 5 0 1 1Austyn Nagamine c 6 0 1 0Austin Inabata rf 3 0 0 0Drake Yoshioka 2b 4 0 0 0Bryson Yasui lf 5 1 1 0Jaraad Salas 1b 3 0 0 0 Kamalu Neal ph/1b 2 0 1 0 Josh Maglangit p 0 0 0 0Reid Akau ss 3 1 1 0Dylan Sugimoto cf/1b 3 1 0 1Totals...... 38 5 5 2Gonzales, LA AB R H BIRobert Podorsky 2b 4 1 2 2Collin Delaune lf 5 0 1 0Austin Millet dh 4 0 2 2 Austin Tanner 1b 2 0 0 0Austin Bain 3b 6 0 1 0Blaine Schexnayder ss 3 1 1 0Devin Speligene 1b/p 5 0 0 0Grant McCrory cf 5 1 1 0Jace Fairchild c 5 0 2 0Madison Nickens rf 5 1 0 0Cole Stapler p 0 0 0 0 Andre Liotta p 0 0 0 0Totals...... 44 4 10 4Waipahu, HI......... 003 000 001 001 - 5 5 1Gonzales, LA........ 000 001 012 000 - 4 10 3E - Yoshioka, D; Bain, A; Schexnayder; Fairchild, J. DP - HI 1; LA 3. LOB - HI 7; LA 11. HBP - Tokunaga, T; Schexnayder. SH - Yoshioka, D; Sugimoto, D 2; Podorsky, R. SB- Tokunaga, T; Podorsky, R. CS - Sakurai, B.Waipahu, HI IP H R ER BB SOTanner Tokunaga 10.0 9 4 3 4 3Josh Maglangit W 2.0 1 0 0 1 1Gonzales, LA IP H R ER BB SOCole Stapler 7.0 2 3 0 5 2Andre Liotta 2.0 3 1 1 1 1Devin Speligene L 3.0 0 1 0 0 1WP - Stapler, C 2. HBP - by Tokunaga, T (Schexnayder); by Speligene, D (Tokunaga, T). BK - Tokunaga, T.Umpires - HP: Joe Rocha 1B: Phil Schlosser 2B: Craig Mills 3B: Randy SuttonStart: 5:00 pm Time: 2:30 Attendance: 6790

Hawaii to play California

Eldon Lindsay/American Legion

WaiPahu, haWaii, shortstoP reid akau tries to complete a double play Monday as Gonzales, La., designated hitter Austin Millet slides into second base at the American Legion Baseball World Series in Shelby, N.C. Hawaii beat Louisiana, 5-4, in 12 innings to advance to Championship Tuesday.