ABBEVILLE, La. — Before North Syracuse, N.Y., could break a sweat in Cajun Country, O'ahu broke out to an 8-0 lead in the first inning en route to a 12-4 victory yesterday.

O'ahu advanced to today's championship game of the Babe Ruth (ages 13-15) World Series, where it will play Jefferson Parish East, La.

Outfielder Matt Suiter credits experience as the reason why O'ahu, now 9-0 in the postseason and 5-0 in the tournament, will have a shot at its second straight World Series title.

"What we did last year really helped a lot," he said. "We came into the tournament not to play to lose but to play to win. Now, we are not scared. We are playing to win a championship."

Harrison Ishida Jr. hit three doubles in four at-bats and drove in three runs to lead O'ahu.

Paul Snieder allowed five hits and three earned runs in five innings to earn the victory. Evan Yamamoto pitched one-hit ball over the final two innings.

Snieder snapped out of a hitting slump with only his second hit of the series, a solo homer leading off the second inning.

"I was struggling," Snieder said. "That home run felt good."

Snieder credits "great chemistry" for the team's success. "We play real well together," he said. "We don't have the best players out there, but we have good players that make good chemistry."

The chemistry started brewing in the bottom of the first inning when O'ahu sent 14 batters to the plate and scored eight runs on three hits and two errors.

Josh Bninski was hit by a pitch and Isaac Kitamura walked to start the rally. Bninski would later score on an error and Suiter hit an RBI double to right to make it 2-0.

With the bases loaded, Reece Kiriu was hit by a pitch to score another run, and Ishida broke it open with a double to left that scored two runs.

O'ahu added three more runs in the inning and never looked back.

"We had jitters," North Syracuse coach Joe Sacco said. "If you look after the first inning, we gave up only four runs. ... Same thing happened the first game against Hawai'i (in a 12-4 loss)."