Toms River's loss to Hawaii ends Little League World Series title hopes

WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. - Toms River National had made a name for itself as a comeback team.

That resilience carried it through district, state, and regional play to reach the Little League World Series as the Mid-Atlantic Region representative.

But that was where the comebacks stopped.

Playing in the losers' bracket Sunday after an opening-round defeat Saturday, Toms River fell to Waipahu, Hawaii, 3-1, at Lamade Stadium, ending the New Jersey team's title hopes.

The loss to the West Region champion put Toms River into a consolation game with Saudi Arabia at noon Tuesday.

"It's been a great, great run," Toms River manager Paul Deceglie said. "I'm proud of them."

Toms River played better Sunday than it had in its 16-6 loss to an Ohio team in its first game in the 16-team tournament, but still struggled at the plate, producing just three hits against Hawaii.

The first came from Kevin Blum, who led off the bottom of the first inning with a home run to tie the game, 1-1. The offense then went into a drought, held without another hit until there were two outs in the fourth inning.

Down by 2-1 at the time, Toms River had its best chance to catch up again. Anthony Deceglie walked and reached third base on a two-out single by Michael Tiplady, who took second on a wild pitch.

But Shiloh Baniaga struck out the next batter, Johnny Lazzaro.

"It's a tough thing," Paul Deceglie said. "I mean, we didn't hit as well as we should. We did have some hits, but hits that we had were caught or happened at times when we didn't have any runners on."

Tiplady, who started on the mound, surrendered a home run to Ty DeSa to open the fifth inning for a 3-1 Hawaii lead. It was Tiplady's 72d pitch of the day, and he was relieved two batters later when he plunked Kaimana Bartolome.

Baniaga pitched five innings for Hawaii and finished with six strikeouts.

In the top of the sixth inning, a defensive play reenergized the Toms River fan base.

With one out and a runner on third, leftfielder Joey Rose caught a foul ball, then fired to catcher Jeff Ciervo to double up the runner, who had tagged up.

"They're a great team, and they made those kind of plays. They make things happen," Paul Deceglie said. "That was a major-league play. And I've been fortunate to witness a lot of those plays along this run, and those are the things I'll remember a lot."

Toms River celebrated the defensive gem but couldn't muster a rally in the bottom of the sixth.

While the loss was disappointing, it didn't dampen the good feelings inspired by Toms River's appearance at Williamsport.

"There's no words that you could put on the experience that we've had here," Deceglie said. "I'm just really proud of all these kids. They're just great kids.

"It was a real run, a real good run for these kids, and I'm really happy for them. It's unbelievable that we're here."

Other games: Panama beat Saudi Arabia, 13-0, led by Luis Bazan with in three runs and Irving Indunis' three doubles and two RBIs. The game ended after the top of the fourth because of the 10-run rule. Japan defeated Puerto Rico, 7-3, as Ryusuke Ikeda pitched 32/3 innings of scoreless relief. Japan took advantage of some defensive lapses to score all of its runs in the first two innings and remain undefeated.