World Series JournalWorld Series JournalAmerican Legion Baseballsince 1926 19aug2013

87th annual

Brooklawn advances to championshipCarl Hennell

WSJ Editor

SHELBY, N.C.—They did it again. The boys from Brooklawn, N.J., beat a team from Louisiana Sunday night in the undefeated game of the American Legion Baseball World Series to earn a berth into the Tuesday night championship game. First baseman Anthony Harrold went 3-for-3 with an RBI, right fielder Fran Kinsey hit a two-run single, and pitcher Tyler Mondile allowed two runs over 6 2/3 innings to help lead New Jersey to a 7-2 victory over Gonzales, N.J. Brooklawn (45-8) will try to eliminate Califor-nia (34-14) Monday night at 8:30 p.m. Louisiana

SEE BROOKLAWN, PAgE 4

New Jersey beats Gonzales, Louisiana, in rainy undefeated game, 7-2

Brooklawn, NJ 7, Gonzales, LA 2Gonzales, LA AB R H BIRobert Podorsky 2b 5 2 3 0Collin Delaune lf 5 0 3 1Austin Millet 3b 3 0 0 0 Jacob LeJeune p 1 0 0 0 Andre Liotta p 0 0 0 0Austin Bain p/3b 4 0 2 0Blaine Schexnayder ss 3 0 0 0Devin Speligene 1b 4 0 0 0Grant McCrory cf 2 0 0 0Steven Bright c 3 0 1 0Madison Nickens rf 4 0 0 0Totals...... 34 2 9 1Brooklawn, NJ AB R H BIPhil Dickinson ss 5 0 1 1Fran Kinsey rf 4 1 1 2Sean Breen 2b 5 0 2 0Nick Cieri 3b 4 1 1 0Jonathan Gonzalez lf 5 1 1 0Tyler Mondile p 3 1 1 0 Mike Mercer p 0 1 0 0Anthony Harrold 1b 3 1 3 1Pete Farlow cf 2 1 1 1John Theckston c 4 0 0 0Totals...... 35 7 11 5Gonzales, LA........ 100 000 100 - 2 9 2Brooklawn, NJ....... 020 110 03X - 7 11 2E - Bain, A; Speligene, D; Dickinson, P; Cieri, N. DP - NJ 1. LOB - LA 9; NJ 10. 2B - Podorsky, R 2; Bain, A 2; Mondile, T. HBP - Cieri, N. SH - McCrory, G; Bright, S. SF - Farlow, P. SB - Podorsky, R.Gonzales, LA IP H R ER BB SOAustin Bain L 5.0 6 4 3 2 8Jacob LeJeune 2.1 5 3 3 2 1Andre Liotta 0.2 0 0 0 0 1Brooklawn, NJ IP H R ER BB SOTyler Mondile W 6.2 8 2 2 2 4Mike Mercer 2.1 1 0 0 0 1WP - LeJeune, J; Bain, A 2; Mondile, T. HBP - by Liotta, A (Cieri, N). BK - Bain, A. Umpires - HP: Mark Mayle 1B: Terry Myers 2B: Randy Sutton 3B: Joe Rocha. Start: 8:45 pm Time: 2:51 Attendance: 6976

Eldon Lindsay / American Legion

BROOKLAWN, N.J., LEft fiELdER JONAthAN gONzALEz slides into home before Gonzales, La., catcher Steven Bright can apply a tag Sunday night, Aug. 18, 2013, in the undefeated game of the American Legion Baseball World Series.

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 (45-8)

Petaluma, Calif. 51:00 PM Louisiana 6

Gonzales, La. 88:30 PM Louisiana 2

Branford, Conn. 0 8:30 PM8:30 PM N. Carolina 5

Wilmington, N.C. 5Minnesota 1

California) 6 1:00 PM California (34-14)1:00 PM California 3

Connecticut 3

Ohio 5 Louisiana (48-5)9:30 AM Hawaii 12 5:30 PM

Hawaii 9 5:00 PM Hawaii (24-5)N. Carolina 3

19Aug2013Page 2 World Series Journal

Hawaii nearly 10 runs CarolinaWaipahu, HI 12, Wilmington, NC 3

Waipahu, HI AB R H BITokunaga, T cf 4 1 2 5 Tyler Uchiyama ph/cf 1 0 0 0Sakurai, B 3b 5 0 0 1Nagamine, A c 6 0 3 3Inabata, A rf 3 1 0 0 Jaraad Salas 1b 1 0 0 0Drake Yoshioka 2b 4 1 0 0 Monis, E 2b 0 0 0 0Bryson Yasui lf 4 1 2 0 Justin Padilla lf 0 0 0 0Enos, T dh 3 1 0 0 Jarinn Afaga-Abreu ph/dh 1 0 0 0Reid Akau ss 5 5 3 2Sugimoto, D 1b/rf 3 2 2 0 Rustin Ho ph/rf 1 0 1 0Neal, K p 0 0 0 0Totals...... 41 12 13 11Wilmington, NC AB R H BIChristian Wolfe cf 4 1 1 0Steven Linkous ss 3 0 1 0Chance Shepard c 4 0 1 0Shane Shepard 3b/1b 3 1 1 1Collin Thacker rf 4 0 0 0Jack Faircloth 2b 4 1 1 1Kenny Lanier lf/p 2 0 0 1 Greg Trotta p 0 0 0 0 Josh Rogers p 0 0 0 0Ward Coleman dh 2 0 0 0 Trey Croom 3b 1 0 0 0Colin Dolan 1b/lf 2 0 0 0 Tyler Kosh ph/lf 1 0 0 0Matt Davis p 0 0 0 0 Tyree Johnson p 0 0 0 0Totals...... 30 3 5 3Waipahu, HI......... 040 320 201 - 12 13 1Wilmington, NC...... 000 100 200 - 3 5 5E - Tokunaga, T; Wolfe,C; Linkous,S; Shepard,C; Shepard,S; Croom,T. DP - HI 1; NC 1.LOB - HI 10; NC 3. 2B - Tokunaga, T; Sugimoto, D. HBP - Inabata, A; Yasui, B. SH -Tokunaga, T. SF - Sakurai, B; Shepard,S. SB - Tokunaga, T.Waipahu, HI IP H R ER BB SONeal, K W 9.0 5 3 2 2 2Wilmington, NC IP H R ER BB SOMatt Davis L 3.1 4 7 3 3 2Tyree Johnson 1.2 3 2 2 1 2Kenny Lanier 2.0 2 2 1 0 3Greg Trotta 1.0 1 0 0 0 0Josh Rogers 1.0 3 1 1 0 2HBP - by Davis,M (Yasui, B); by Johnson,T (Inabata, A). BK - Neal, K.Umpires - HP: Craig Mills 1B: Jay Desantis 2B: Terry Myers 3B: Dave BrownStart: 5:00 pm Time: 2:24 Attendance: 6905Johnson,T faced 2 batters in the 6th.

Carl HennellWSJ Editor

SHELBY, N.C.—It was nearly over by the 10-run rule in seven innings. Waipahu, Hawaii, catcher Austyn Naga-mine had three hits and three RBIs, shortstop Reid Akau had three hits and scored five runs, center fielder Tanner Tokunaga col-lected five RBIs, and pitcher Kamalu Neal earned a complete-game victory to help lead the Hawaiians in eliminating Wilmington, N.C., 12-3, Sunday evening at the American Legion Baseball World Series. Hawaii scored four runs in the top of the second inning and never looked back. It led 11-1 before North Carolina scored twice in the bottom of the seventh inning to extend the game to a full nine innings. Waipahu (25-5) will play Gonzales, La. (48-5), Monday evening at 5 p.m. in a loser-out semifinal. North Carolina’s season ended with a 35-4 record. Neal used a well-located low 80-mph fastball with a slider to spread five hits and two walks over nine innings, striking out only two, while inducing 18 ground outs. His defense committed just one error; North Carolina committed five. “He throws an effective fastball,” Na-gamine said. “It’s a flat fastball; it doesn’t move or anything. But the batters today were really aggressive and chasing everything. So he was pitching to contact and our defense was making the plays. His curveball wasn’t really working today. It usually does and it’s really sharp. At the regional in Oregon

he shut people down with his curveball. His slider helped out a lot today because it caught batters off guard. I used his fastball a lot today, especially once we got the lead and they were aggressive I just wanted him to paint the outside and let them chase it. He was locating the ball really well, and when he did put it down the middle of the plate they were rolling over on it because it was a slower fastball. Whenever I called the chan-geup they just hammered it. So we rarely used it.” Akau, Hawaii’s No. 8 hitter, went 3-for-5 with two RBIs to go with his five runs. He highlighted the four-run second inning with a two-run bloop single into left field. “I had two strikes… It was a changeup and I stuck out my bat,” Akau said. “It just so happened to drop over the third baseman. The big hit … It’s new to me.” Nagamine highlighted Hawaii’s three-run fourth inning with a two-run bloop single into left field. “I took two strikes and I was just sitting on the fastball because after two strikes he couldn’t control his curveball,” he said. “He threw a fastball and it was low and outside and I dinked it over the third baseman. I just got lucky. I just clicked my wrists and it went over. If the third baseman was taller he would have caught it. It was super close.” Tokunaga hit a two-run single up the middle in the fifth to give Hawaii a 9-1 lead and then added a two-run double in the sev-enth to put the game at 11-1. Bryson Yasui and Dylan Sugimoto each had two hits in the winning effort as Hawaii

out-hit North Carolina, 13-5.

Eldon Lindsay / American Legion

Waipahu, haWaii, center fielder tanner tokunaga steals second base as Wilmington, N.C., shortstop Steven Linkous takes the throw from catcher Chance Shepard Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013, at the American Legion Baseball World Series in Shelby, N.C. North Carolina pitcher Tyree Johnson looks on. Hawaii beat North Carolina, 12-3, in loser-out action to advance to the semifinals.

Page 319Aug2013 World Series Journal

Busse’s HR lifts Cali, eliminates Minnesota

Petaluma, CA 3, Burnsville, MN 1Burnsville, MN AB R H BIPeter Nordgren lf 4 0 2 0Eric Watters 2b 4 0 1 0Tyler Hanson ss/3b 4 0 0 0Bo Hellquist dh 4 1 1 0Tyler Hill cf 3 0 1 0Zach Smith rf/p 4 0 0 0Brandon Dorshak 3b/rf 4 0 1 0Logan Vermeer 1b 4 0 1 1Camden Traetow c 3 0 1 0Cooper Maas p/ss 0 0 0 0Totals...... 34 1 8 1Petaluma, CA AB R H BIChase Stafford 2b 4 0 2 0Ryan Haug c 3 0 1 0Anthony Bender ss 4 1 1 0Robert Busse 3b 3 1 1 2Weston Bryan 1b 4 0 1 0Blake Patrick dh 4 0 0 0Ryan Walsh rf 3 1 1 0Charles Parnow cf 3 0 1 1Vinnie Albano lf 3 0 0 0Scott Hilbert p 0 0 0 0 Jimmy Flatt p 0 0 0 0Totals...... 31 3 8 3Burnsville, MN...... 000 100 000 - 1 8 3Petaluma, CA........ 012 000 00X - 3 8 2E - Watters, E; Traetow, C; Maas, C; Stafford, C; Albano, V. DP - MN 1; CA 1. LOB - MN 11; CA 8. 2B - Parnow, C. HR - Busse, R. HBP - Traetow, C. SH - Nordgren, P. SB -Stafford, C; Patrick, B. CS - Walsh, R; Parnow, C. Reached on CI - Busse, R.Burnsville, MN IP H R ER BB SOCooper Maas L 6.0 5 3 3 3 4Zach Smith 2.0 3 0 0 0 0Petaluma, CA IP H R ER BB SOScott Hilbert W 6.0 5 1 1 3 4Jimmy Flatt S 3.0 3 0 0 0 1WP - Maas, C. HBP - by Hilbert, S (Traetow, C). PB - Trae-tow, C. CI - Traetow, C.Umpires - HP: Phil Schlosser 1B: Joe Rocha 2B: Dave Brown 3B: Randy SuttonStart: 1:00 pm Time: 2:24 Attendance: 6663

Carl HennellWSJ Editor

SHELBY, N.C.—A mistake two-strike pitch turned into a two-run dinger early in the game and it stood up for the win Sunday afternoon at the American Legion Baseball World Series. California cleanup hitter Robert Busse pulled a two-out, 1-2 fastball over the big Lowe’s sign behind the left-center field wall of Keeter Stadium in the third inning for a two-run home run to give Petaluma, Calif., a 3-0 lead, and two pitchers combined to allow just one run the rest of the way, as California eliminated Burnsville, Minn., 3-1 to advance to the semifinals. “At first I was just looking for something to hit because he got me on that changeup in my first at bat and I struck out,” Busse said. “So I sat on his changeup and he still ended up getting me on it. It was 1-1 and he threw me the changeup and I swung through it. I turned around and said that’s the changeup that I needed to hit. So I got back into the box and I was sitting changeup because they had gotten me twice on it now so I was going to sit on it again. He ended up throwing the fastball and it was knee high and I ended up hitting it. I just got my hands going and let my bat fly. I turned on it and hit it right and we got two runs out of it. It felt nice. It felt good, but I was just hoping I got enough be-cause a couple of our guys felt like they got good contact the other day but they didn’t get out of here. But that one felt good off the bat.” The victory puts California (34-14) into a semifinal with New Jersey (45-8) Monday night at about 8:30 p.m. California starting pitcher Scott Hilbert spread five hits and three walks over six innings using a mid-80 mph fastball with a hard-cut slider and changeup. The 6-foot, 195-pounder righty’s looping curveball wasn’t working too well, said catcher Ryan Haug. “His slider was his No. 2 pitch today because he was hanging his curveball too much,” Haug said. “We called it quite a bit today—maybe a little more than 35 percent

sliders—then mixed up his changeup in there instead of his curve because he wasn’t able to locate it. He kept the hitters off balance. They couldn’t catch up with his fastball and he was locating it—busting hitters in. The changeup was shaky in the bullpen, but he found it and we went with it. He was a little amped up. His stuff in the beginning was missing wide, missing up. He just settled down and fixed a little mechanics. He just kept his shoulder closed. He was flying open a little and his arm was a little bit behind so his balls were staying up. Once he found that down zone, he was solid.” Hilbert stuck out just four and then Jimmy Flatt pitched the final three shutout innings to earn his second save in two days. With the lack of strikeouts, credit went to California’s defense—which committed two errors. Minnesota stranded 11 runners; Cali-fornia stranded eight. “Our defense… Two errors is honestly a lot for us,” Busse said. “We are usually a really good defense because all you need to do is catch the ball and throw the ball. That’s all it is and we understand that. But we had some nice instructive plays off of balls that were hit hard at us.” Besides the early home run, the game was so close it even had crazy similarities. The teams equaled each other with eight hits. Both leadoff hitters—California second baseman Chase Stafford and Minnesota left fielder Peter Nordgren—were the only players with two hits. Each team’s No. 8 hitters—California center fielder Charles Parnow and Minnesota first baseman Logan Vermeer—each had RBI singles. Burnsville

starting pitcher Cooper Mass also went six innings, allowing five hits and three walks with four strikeouts—the exact same stat line as California’s Hibbert. “Those are such crazy similarities that we probably need to check the computer scorebook program for a glitch in the box score,” said ALWS’s 20th-year Internet Scor-ing Specialist Alex Grim.

Petaluma, Calif., advances to ALWS semifinal against N.J.

California third baseman robert busse swings for his third-inning home run Sunday, Aug. 18, 2013, at the American Le-gion Baseball World Series in Shelby, N.C.

Eldon Lindsay / American Legion

19Aug2013Page 4 World Series Journal

National Tournament StatisticsHITS

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)

STRIKEOUTS IP SOBryan Sammons-NC 22.1 25Mike Shawaryn-NJ 17.0 25Zach Willeman-OH 20.1 18Austin Tanner-LA 17.0 182 tied with 17 strikeout(s)

National Tournament StatisticsTEAM BATTING G Avg AB R H 2B 3B HR BB SO SB-ATTWaipahu, HI 9 .370 349 91 129 22 2 1 42 54 19-28Petaluma, CA 8 .356 298 78 106 20 3 6 42 48 16-19Branford, CT 7 .320 247 62 79 14 1 1 33 23 6-7Brooklawn, NJ 8 .315 273 69 86 13 2 0 49 41 19-22Napoleon, OH 8 .315 286 58 90 13 2 1 46 38 13-14Gonzales, LA 8 .288 278 55 80 14 2 3 42 34 21-24Burnsville, MN 8 .280 275 44 77 12 0 1 26 59 3-5Wilmington, NC 8 .278 255 57 71 11 3 2 45 41 16-20Totals 32 .318 2261 514 718 119 15 15 325 338 113-139

TEAM PITCHING G ERA W L Sv IP H R ER BB SOWilmington, NC 8 1.93 6 2 1 70.0 52 34 15 43 69Brooklawn, NJ 8 2.22 8 0 2 73.0 54 25 18 33 74Burnsville, MN 8 3.04 6 2 1 68.0 70 29 23 24 47Gonzales, LA 8 3.16 6 2 4 74.0 68 38 26 24 77Petaluma, CA 8 3.22 6 2 3 67.0 65 35 24 23 38Napoleon, OH 8 4.11 5 3 2 70.0 73 43 32 45 53Waipahu, HI 9 4.16 6 2 1 80.0 88 48 37 22 46Branford, CT 7 6.16 4 3 1 57.0 79 50 39 24 42Totals 32 3.45 47 16 15 559.0 549 302 214 238 446

TEAM FIELDING G PO A E Pct DP PB SBA-ATTNapoleon, OH 8 210 93 11 .965 4 2 4-6Gonzales, LA 8 222 83 12 .962 3 3 12-14Brooklawn, NJ 8 219 82 15 .953 4 2 12-15Branford, CT 7 171 69 12 .952 4 1 12-16Waipahu, HI 9 240 108 18 .951 11 1 4-6Burnsville, MN 8 204 84 15 .950 7 1 7-11Petaluma, CA 8 201 83 19 .937 6 0 9-11Wilmington, NC 8 210 84 23 .927 11 3 7-10Totals 32 1677 686 125 .950 50 13 67-89

INDIVIDUAL BATTINGMin 21 plate appearances G Avg AB R H RBI 2B 3B HR BBAnthony Harrold-NJ 8 .500 28 6 14 9 2 0 0 5Nick Cieri-NJ 8 .483 29 8 14 4 3 0 0 8Bryson Yasui-HI 8 .467 30 9 14 7 0 0 0 2Collin Delaune-LA 7 .455 22 6 10 6 2 0 0 5Weston Bryan-CA 8 .448 29 9 13 6 2 1 0 8Steven Linkous-NC 8 .448 29 12 13 5 3 2 0 8Bo Hellquist-MN 8 .448 29 8 13 6 3 0 0 6Reid Akau-HI 9 .444 36 10 16 7 2 0 0 1Tyler Forgione-CT 7 .444 27 7 12 9 3 0 0 4Chase Stafford-CA 8 .417 36 11 15 11 5 0 1 5Pete Farlow-NJ 8 .400 25 8 10 5 1 0 0 6Tyler Criscuolo-CT 7 .400 25 10 10 4 2 1 0 9Austyn Nagamine-HI 9 .395 38 6 15 8 1 0 0 3Tyler Torrez-OH 8 .394 33 7 13 5 2 0 0 3Brent Sakurai-HI 9 .385 39 9 15 11 1 0 0 4Alexander Pantani-CT 7 .385 26 5 10 3 2 0 0 2Josh Cales-OH 8 .382 34 10 13 3 1 0 0 6Blaine Schexnayder-LA 8 .379 29 7 11 6 0 0 1 5Ryan Haug-CA 8 .375 32 9 12 6 2 0 1 8Christian Wolfe-NC 8 .371 35 9 13 5 3 1 0 3

INDIVIDUAL PITCHINGMinimum 7 IP App ERA W-L Sv IP H R ER BB SOBryan Sammons-NC 3 0.00 2-1 0 22.1 16 6 0 15 25Joe O’Donnell-NC 2 0.00 1-0 0 13.0 3 0 0 1 7Mike Mercer-NJ 4 0.00 1-0 1 8.1 4 0 0 2 8Jimmy Flatt-CA 4 0.75 2-0 2 12.0 10 2 1 2 4Zach Smith-MN 2 0.82 1-0 0 11.0 12 3 1 1 6Austin Hancock-OH 4 0.87 2-0 1 10.1 7 4 1 3 9Mike Shawaryn-NJ 3 1.06 1-0 1 17.0 9 4 2 2 25Cole Stapler-LA 1 1.29 1-0 0 7.0 2 1 1 3 9Tyler Hanson-MN 3 1.62 3-0 0 16.2 15 3 3 6 12John Murphy-NJ 2 1.72 2-0 0 15.2 12 4 3 3 16Zach Willeman-OH 3 1.77 1-1 0 20.1 20 10 4 11 18Kamalu Neal-HI 2 2.00 1-0 0 18.0 13 7 4 3 7Greg Trotta-NC 3 2.00 1-0 0 9.0 5 4 2 4 3Brandon Hagerla-CA 3 2.37 2-0 0 19.0 22 9 5 3 11Tanner Tokunaga-HI 1 2.57 0-0 0 7.0 8 5 2 1 6

BrooklawnContinued from Page 1

(48-5) will play Hawaii (24-5) in a loser-out semifinal Monday evening at 5:30 p.m. Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the second inning, Harrold hit an RBI single to tie the game, then Pete Farlow added a sacrifice fly to give New Jersey a lead it would never relinquish. It added a single run in both the fourth and fifth innings to put New Jersey up 4-0. Louisiana scored in the top of the seventh to put the game at 4-2, then Mon-dile was relieved by Mike Mercer to shut down the rally attempt. Mondile allowed eight hits and two walks while striking out four. Brooklawn added three more runs in the eighth to put the game out of reach.