The Central East Maui All-Stars pose with their championship banner after winning the Senior League West Regional on Wednesday in Sacramento, Calif. DEAN KOKUBUN photo

It will be his second straight trip to the Senior League (15-16) World Series, but Craig Okita marvels at the thought that it will be Central East Maui’s fourth in a row.

The CEM All-Stars finished off an impressive, unbeaten run through the Senior League West Regional in Sacramento, Calif., on Wednesday with a 6-2 win over North Natomas Little League, the Northern California champs from Sacramento.

“Yes it is impressive, we’re been very, very fortunate, we really have,” Okita said via phone soon after receiving the champion banner.

Five players from this team were also part of the CEM team that went 1-2 in Easley, S.C., last year — Ben Zeigler-Namoa, Tiger Caulford, Isiah Kekahuna-Hernandez, Keelan Yagi and Isaiah Souza.

“They’re the leaders on this team, they have been there before,” Okita said. “Some of the guys on this team, we haven’t coached them much in the youth part, so those guys have kind of taken the lead for the younger kids and set a good example for them. They keep everybody together.

“Words cannot express how important they are to this team.”

In their championship game win, Zeigler-Namoa pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing 11 hits and two earned runs while striking out five and walking two.

Zeigler-Namoa was also 2-for-3 at the plate with a run. Caulford was 3-for-4 with two RBIs and Dylan Kokubun was 2-for-3 with a run.

Maui scored five times in the top of the first inning.

“I was very happy that we got on them early, but I knew, I kept saying the whole game, ‘Guys we need to score one or two more runs,’ ” Okita said. “We had so much opportunities. The first inning we should have scored more, we had the bases loaded with one out with the top of our lineup and we didn’t score. In the third inning or fourth inning, we had men on first and second no outs. Another time we had men on second no outs and we couldn’t push them across.”

The key for the week was staying in the winner’s bracket. CEM did that by outscoring four opponents 43-11. North Natomas was playing its seventh game of the tournament Wednesday by virtue of being sent to the elimination bracket with a 10-0 loss against Central on Saturday.

“It is absolutely key in these Little League tournaments, it’s a huge advantage to stay in the winner’s bracket,” Okita said. “We were fortunate to be able to squeak one out in that Arizona game (an 11-9 win on Monday), we were on our heels in that game. We probably should have lost, but were able to squeak that out.”

Last year at the World Series, Maui beat the host team before two close losses sent the Valley Isle nine home much sooner than hoped.

The 2019 SLWS starts Saturday. The brackets have not been released yet, but Zeigler-Namoa is not available to pitch until Monday after reaching the Little League pitch limit of 95 on Wednesday.

“The teams in all the regional championship games, they are all good,” Okita said. “We know the teams when we get to the World Series, they are all going to be tough. Everybody’s got a good pitcher, so you’ve got to dance your way through the brackets somehow. You know, you’ve got to win those games, those tight games.”

Okita said that Zeigler-Namoa was not at his best on Wednesday, but he toughed out the crucial win.

“He didn’t have his best stuff, you know, 11 hits,” Okita said. “But just two runs, that’s remarkable. He got out of some tough jams, he grinded it out today. He’s been there, that’s one guy we are going to rely on heavily.”

Central East Maui committed just three errors in their four West Regional games. Okita singled out middle infielders Wehiwa Aloy and Makane Honokaupu for solid play.

“We played very well defensively,” Okita said. “The game against Arizona we played terribly, but for the most part the defense played well. Makane and Wehiwa did very well up the middle, we turned a bunch of double plays.”

The alarm clocks were set to go off early this morning.

“It’ll be an early morning for us tomorrow, get on the plane and fly into Greenville,” Okita said.

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.