Sweetwater Valley reaches Little League World Series with rout of Hawaii

SAN BERNARDINO — Sweetwater Valley Little League is heading to the East Coast.

Noah Kirk struck out seven, and Isaac Martinez hit a late grand slam as the Southern California champs beat Hawaii, 11-3, in the West Region championship game on Friday night to secure a spot at the Little League World Series next week in Williamsport, Pa.

SoCal’s 12-year-old champions, undefeated at Al Houghton Stadium this week, are now one of 10 U.S.-based teams vying for one of the most coveted titles in youth sports at the 20-team LLWS.

“This is something we’ve been talking about as a group for a whole year,” SVLL manager Steve Winnick said. “I thought it could happen but at the same time to see it happen and see these boys rise to the occasion time after time is pretty incredible.”

A U.S. semifinalist in 2015, this will be the second trip to the Little League World Series for Sweetwater Valley of Bonita.

“It’s the thing we’ve been dreaming about,” Kirk said. “Now we get to go.”

The first Southern California representative to win the West Region since El Segundo in 2023, SVLL is only the second non-Hawaii winner since SoCal won three consecutive titles from 2015-17. Hawaii had won six of the past seven tournaments overall.

Unbeaten over its last 11 games going back to the sectional tournament, SVLL heads to Williamsport having outscored opponents 84-8 over that span.

SoCal’s prolific offense got cooking in the third inning. Julian Sevilla led off with a walk and advanced to third on an infield hit by Mateo Ruiz. After a ground out, Teagen Cochran laced a single to left field to plate both Sevilla and Ruiz for a 2-0 lead.

Tempe Tran continued his outstanding tournament with an RBI single in the fourth, and SVLL tacked on three more runs after Isaac Ramirez and Tran both scored on wild pitches. Tran reached base in six of seven plate appearances with three RBIs and three runs.

Hawaii put runners on base in each of the first four innings – including a hard-hit double to the fence by Kaikea Saiki in the third and another off the top of the wall from Kholten Panui in the fourth – but Kirk wiggled out of every threat until the fifth, when Waiki Doctolero blasted a three-run home run to get Hawaii back in the game.

A contested double play that was reviewed and upheld got Kirk out of the inning, and SoCal added six more runs in the sixth after Martinez shocked the crowd of more than 10,000 with a deep drive to right-center field for an eight-run lead.

Leo Gonzales entered for Kirk to begin the sixth and induced a pair of ground outs before striking out Hawaii leadoff hitter Kepa Koga to end the game.

Sweetwater Valley advanced to the West Region final with victories over Northern California and Hawaii. Kirk got the win with 5-1/3 innings to beat NorCal in the unofficial state title game in the regional opener on Sunday, two days before Martinez hurled a complete game one-hitter to beat Hawaii in a semifinal.