SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT–A remarkable summer-long journey ended Wednesday night at Lamade Stadium.

But what a run it was. And what a fight Wailuku put up in its final game. The West champions never flinched while facing a four-run, fourth inning deficit. They scored three times in the bottom of the fourth and moved the tying runner to third base with one out in the sixth. Luis Calo, however, produced a strikeout and induced a game-ending groundout as Lake Mary, Florida edged Wailuku, 4-3 in the U.S. Little League World Series semifinals.

Wailuku may have lost the game, but it was never defeated.

“They fought hard right to the end. They went down swinging and that’s all we can ask for,” Wailuku manager Daniel Bolduc said. “They had no quit.”

After closing within one, Wailuku produced a few more highlights in a summer filled with them in its final at-bat. Gabriel Laloulu smashed a long double off the center field wall, leading off the inning and went to third on Kolten Magno’s well-placed bunt up the third-base line.

Laloulu just missed hitting a game-tying home run by a few feet. Calo, though, came back strong and collected his fourth strikeout in 2 2/3 scoreless innings of relief. Jet Pontes then hit a grounder to second and hustled as fast as he could but Chase Anderson’s throw beat him by a few steps.

The all-star season was over, but it was a season the team and its fans will never forget. Wailuku built on its stellar Little League tradition, defeated a powerful California team for the West Region championship, won two Series games and finished fourth in the country.

The tears shed afterward will dry. The memories this team made will last a lifetime.

“(I’ll remember) the overall experience. This is the highest level you can get for Little League,” Bolduc said. “The way the tournament is run, the city … I don’t know what the word is, whether it’s magical or inspirational. Whatever it is, they really rally around the youth and to me that is just amazing. They made every kid feel like a Major Leaguer and I think that’s unbelievable.”

Wailuku started staging what felt like an unbelievable comeback in the fourth inning. Florida scored a run in the first inning, two in the second and went ahead, 4-0 on Garrett Rohozen’s third-inning home run. Hayden Takahashi, Kamalei Leynes-Santos and Matthew Yang, however, delivered gutsy pitching performances and kept Florida from blowing things open. So did third baseman Brextyn Kamaha’o Hong who made a series of super plays which ended innings.

And after being held to one hit through three innings, Wailuku came alive in the fourth. Leynes-Santos hit a lead-off single and Pontes a one-out single. Pontes was the first of five straight players who reached base as Wailuku came charging back.

Gauge Pacheco nearly homered a batter later, driving an RBI double off the left field wall. An error produced another run and Yang’s RBI single made it, 4-3.

“In baseball you have to have that one spark. That inning we got a walk, we strung together a few hits, got the pitcher a little rattled. That’s the game,” Bolduc said. “You have to have that spark. We had it that inning, we just fell one run short.”

Calo entered with it 4-3 and the bases loaded. He quickly put out the fire, collecting two straight strikeouts on full counts. He delivered under pressure again in the sixth, throwing 2 2/3 innings of scoreless baseball and fanning four.

“We put him (Calo) in some tough spots and he got out of it for us,” Florida manager Jonathan Anderson said. “This kid is the real deal, I can tell you that.”

Yang capped that fourth inning rally with his latest clutch hit and put together a fantastic Series. Yang hit safely in all four games, shined at catcher and also threw two scoreless innings against Florida.

“Matthew Yang probably is one of the MVPs of the tournament. He’s got a bunch of key hits,” Bolduc said. “You didn’t see him pitch this whole tournament and he came in and pitched two shut down innings. He’s awesome. He’s got a bright future ahead of him.”

Based on what they did this summer so do all his teammates.