Aug 7, 2016 3 min read

Call it baseball for breakfast.

And it was a feast for Maui, Hawaii.

When the Maui team finally played its first game in the Pony League World Series it was 6 a.m. back in the West Zone champion’s hometown.

These kids must be early risers. Or maybe they were just tired of sitting around for two days watching nine other teams play baseball games.

Well-rested Maui wasted no time Sunday against European Zone champion Paderborn, Germany. Maui scored three runs in the top of the first inning and cruised to a 9-0 victory at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington Park.

Maui, which was the last of the 10 teams in the world series to play a game, returns to the field 8 p.m. tonight for a matchup of unbeaten teams against Laredo, Texas. Paderborn, which was playing its second game in less than 19 hours, will attempt to stay alive in the double-elimination tournament when it plays Bay County, Mich., at 12:30 p.m. today.

Maui third baseman Andre Beaudoin hit two home runs and had five RBI, and pitchers Kaipo Haole and Micah Kele combined on a one-hit shutout. There was no jet lag for the Hawaiians.

“We’ve been gone for so long – we haven’t been in Hawaii since July 25th – that we’ve adjusted to the time difference. We wake up early,” said Beaudoin, who hit a two-run homer in the first inning and a three-run shot in the fifth that gave Maui a 6-0 lead.

“I think it helped that we were able to watch the other teams play before we had a game. We were more relaxed.”

Haole, the starter, gave up one hit and one walk over six impressive innings. He struck out 13. Each of the last nine outs recorded by Haole were strikeouts.

“That’s Kaipo,” said Maui manager Dean Yamashita. “He’s been doing that since he was 10 years old. He’s smart, his mechanics are good and he makes good adjustments. He’s going to develop into a very good pitcher.”

Maui scored the only run it would need just three batters into the game as Haole’s double to right centerfield scored Isaiah Duarte from second base. Beaudoin followed with his first home run to make it 3-0.

“We had a good practice Saturday,” Yamashita said. “After that, we wanted to play. That got the blood and adrenaline flowing. We were ready to play.”

Paderborn pitcher Simon Baeumer, despite taking a line drive off his left (pitching) arm in the fourth inning, kept his team within striking distance until the fifth. That’s when Beaudoin hit his second homer, a line-drive just over the fence and inside the left-field foul pole. Maui added three more runs in the sixth, which included another run-scoring double by Haole. Beaudoin and Haole combined to go 5-for-7 with four extra-base hits and seven RBI.

Paderborn, which scored 12 runs in an opening win Saturday over Washington County, never got its offense going against Maui and had only three baserunners, none reaching scoring position. Nicolai Kirchoff had Paderborn’s lone hit, a leadoff single in the second, but was erased a double-play ground ball.

“Everybody really wanted to finally come out and play well. We were excited about playing and it showed,” Beaudoin said.