{"id":433697,"date":"2026-08-15T10:26:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T10:26:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/433697\/"},"modified":"2026-08-15T10:26:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T10:26:16","slug":"little-league-big-dreams-sweetwater-valley-punches-ticket-to-world-series-with-regional-title-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/433697\/","title":{"rendered":"Little League, big dreams: Sweetwater Valley punches ticket to World Series with regional title win"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAN BERNARDINO \u2014 Sweetwater Valley Little League is heading to Williamsport.<\/p>\n

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

SoCal\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something we\u2019ve been talking about as a group for a whole year,\u201d SVLL manager Steve Winnick said. \u201cI thought it could happen, but at the same time, to see it happen \u2014 and see these boys rise to the occasion time after time \u2014 is pretty incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

A United States semifinalist in 2015, it\u2019ll be the second trip to the LLWS for Sweetwater Valley.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the thing we\u2019ve been dreaming about,\u201d Kirk said. \u201cNow we get to go.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SweetwaterSweetwater Valley Little League fans cheer during the Little League West Regional final against Hawaii on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026, at Al Houghton Stadium in San Bernardino. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune\/SCNG)<\/p>\n

The first Southern California representative to win the West Region since 2023, SVLL is only the second non-Hawaii winner since SoCal captured three consecutive titles from 2015-\u201917. Hawaii had won six of the last seven tournaments overall.<\/p>\n

Unbeaten over its last 11 games going back to the sectional tournament, SVLL enters the LLWS having outscored opponents 84-8 over that span.<\/p>\n

SoCal\u2019s 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 groundout, Teagen Cochran laced a single to left field to plate both Sevilla and Ruiz for a 2-0 lead.<\/p>\n

Photos: Sweetwater Valley beats Hawaii, 11-3<\/a><\/p>\n

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 6 of 7 plate appearances, driving in three runs and scoring three times.<\/p>\n

Hawaii put runners on base in each of the first four innings, but Kirk wiggled out of it until the fifth when Waiki Doctolero blasted a three-run home run to get Hawaii back in the game.<\/p>\n

A contested double play that was reviewed and upheld got Kirk out of the inning, and SoCal added six more 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.<\/p>\n

Leo Gonzales entered for Kirk to start the sixth and got a pair of groundouts before striking out Hawaii leadoff hitter Kepa Koga to end the game.<\/p>\n

\"SweetwaterSweetwater Valley\u2019s Tempe Tran, left, and Mateo Ruiz celebrate after turning a double play against Hawaii\u2019 during the Little League West Regional final at Al Houghton Stadium on Friday, Aug. 14, 2026 in San Bernardino, California. (Meg McLaughlin \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Sweetwater Valley LL advanced to the West Region final following wins 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 region opener on Sunday, two days before Martinez hurled a complete-game one-hitter to beat Hawaii in the region semifinal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN BERNARDINO \u2014 Sweetwater Valley Little League is heading to Williamsport. Noah Kirk struck out seven, and Isaac…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433698,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,74,76,75,127,1696],"class_list":["post-433697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-latest-headlines","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}