The 12th member of the team, 12-year-old Kawika Pruett, and his mother, Rene, were at Honolulu Airport to meet the team and join them on the flight to Hilo. Kawika is an eighth-grader at Highlands Intermediate and ended up playing for Hilo because his mother works on the Big Island and has a residence there.

The baseball journey was also a sweet one for Kawika, who was a member of the Pearl City team that finished second in the state last year to West O'ahu, the eventual 2005 Little League World Series champion.

"The World Series and the championship is the best thing ever for me in baseball," said Kawika, who is the younger brother of former Kamehameha star and Milwaukee Brewers farmhand Hubert Pruett III and current pitcher-shortstop Alika Pruett of Kamehameha.

"This is the best in my life right now," said Kaha Wong, field manager of the Hilo team which gave Hawai'i its second straight Ripken World Series championship.

Wong said the key to Hilo's success was the mental and physical conditioning of the players, something they worked hard at. "We've been on the road for a month and had enough left when it counted," Wong said.