Massapequa Coast faces Little League World Series elimination after loss to Hawaii
WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — It’s win or go home now for Massapequa Coast at the Little League World Series.
The Metro Region champion stumbled out of the blocks Friday night as it began play in the United States bracket of the tournament with a 12-0 five-inning run-rule loss to Hawaii at Lamade Stadium.
Hawaii’s Jaron Lancaster and Cohen Sakamoto combined to hold Massapequa without a hit. Hawaii hit four home runs: two by Kekoa Payanal and one each by Lancaster and Esaiah Wong.
“I don’t know if I said it during a [pitching change] or at the end of the game, but I told them, ‘Welcome to the World Series,’ ” Massapequa Coast manager Roland Clark said. “We knew coming in Hawaii would be a tough team, but I think every team when they come to the World Series needs a little wake-up call. And it happens — that’s baseball.”
“We had a huge advantage because we’d already played a game,” said Hawaii manager Keith Oda, standing in for his brother Gerald, who has COVID-19. “We saw nerves when we played Wednesday.”
Massapequa Coast (15-3) will play on Sunday at 2 p.m. against the winner of Saturday’s elimination game between Pennsylvania and Massachusetts.
“I don’t believe they want to go home — that was the look I received in that dugout, even during the game,” Clark said. “It wasn’t a look like they were ready to pack it in, which I was very happy about . . . There are going to be wins, there’re going to be losses, and on Sunday, we’ll see how we come back from it.”
Hawaii put Massapequa on its heels quickly. Payanal led off the game by hitting Joey Lionetti’s third pitch for a home run.
Massapequa looked as if it might answer in the bottom of the first when Christian Bekiers drew a leadoff walk and took second on a wild pitch, but Lancaster eluded trouble with three straight strikeouts.
Tau Purcell had a run-scoring single in the second and Lancaster hit a solo home run in the third for a 3-0 lead.
In the bottom of the third, Anthony Badagliacca drew a one-out walk and made it to second, but Lancaster struck out the final two batters to finish with seven in three innings.
Alex Pagano narrowly missed a home run in the fourth when he flied out to the warning track against Sakamoto, who recorded four strikeouts in two innings.
“We heard a couple fastballs that really popped [from Lancaster],” Clark said. “You have to get used to that . . . and our hitters were a little tentative.”
Wong’s three-run shot came in a six-run fifth that gave Hawaii the 12-run lead.
Oda removed Lancaster before he’d thrown too many pitches to appear in a quarterfinal-round game Monday. Clark removed Lionetti after two innings and kept him a viable option for Sunday.
“By no means are we 12 runs better than them,” Oda said. “[Lionetti] is a very good pitcher, but we put them in a tough position where they had to think about the rest of the tournament . . . We could end up playing them again and it would be a one-run game.”
Roger Rubin returned to Newsday in 2018 to write about high schools, colleges and baseball following 20 years at the Daily News. A Baseball Hall of Fame voter since 2011, he has covered 13 MLB postseasons and 14 NCAA Final Fours.
