Williamsport, Pa. >> Central East Maui was quick to take advantage of the very thing that doomed it against Henderson, Nev., on Monday — walks.

Gauge Pacheco drew a walk to open the bottom of the first, which quickly led to early run support for Maui ace Evan Tavares, who made a little offense go along way as Maui claimed a 3-1 victory over hometown favorite Newtown, Pa., of the Mid-Atlantic Region, in a Little League World Series elimination game on Tuesday.

Central East Maui stays alive to play Lake Mary, Fla., today at 1 p.m. on ESPN. The Southeast Region representative defeated Metro Region champion South Shore of Staten Island, N.Y. 6-1 on Tuesday night.

Central East Maui’s win Tuesday belonged to Tavares, who overcame a shaky start to throw another gem in Williamsport.

“After the first inning I felt way more comfortable,” Tavares said. “I was pretty mad after I gave up walks and hits.”

He overcame two walks in the opening inning and appeared to find a groove in the second. He retired Newtown with three consecutive strikeouts after Gavin Caudill hit a single.

“So, Evan is awesome,” Newtown manager Brad Hamilton said. “He locates his pitches well. He does a wonderful job at a young age of working the corners and not giving you a barrel strike to hit.”

The string of three strikeouts to end the second sparked a streak of nine consecutive outs for Tavares and the Central East Maui defense.

Tavares fanned the side to get through the third. He received some help in the fourth. Kolten Magno and Kanon Nakama both made stops on ground balls for outs. Tavares picked up his ninth strikeout for the second out of the fourth.

Saverio Longo ended Tavares’ streak with a single into right field to open the fifth inning. Tavares hit 65 pitches during the next at-bat when he caught Brody Gage looking on a close call for the third strike.

“We kept telling him to focus on strikes,” Central East Maui coach Daniel Bolduc said. “No freebies.”

Central East Maui pieced together two runs in the first. After a leadoff walk by Pacheco and a single from Brextyn Kamaha’o Hong, Kanon Nakama hit a sacrifice fly to score Pacheco, with Hong advancing to third. One out later, Hayden Takahashi walked. With Hong still on third, Takahashi took off for second, drawing an overthrow, which allowed Hong to score on a delayed double steal.

Maui added a run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Cam Kaneshiro and Matthew Yang opened with back-to-back singles. It was a typical World Series day for Yang, who has been Maui’s most consistent hitter.

“Matt has come a long way for us,” Bolduc said. “Everybody knows the mental part of the game. Sometimes you doubt yourself. He’s definitely improved on that.”

Newtown brought in Tyler Wexler to pitch. His first delivery was in the dirt and bounded to the backstop, allowing the runners to advance to second and third. After a walk to Kolten Magno loaded the bases, Gabriel Laloulu lifted a fly to medium right field that was caught.

Kaneshiro tagged and ran halfway home before realizing he would not beat the throw and doubling back to third. Yang was approaching third, but headed back toward second as he watched the play develop. After the catcher threw to third to try to turn Kaneshiro’s pickle into an out, the throw back home sailed over the head of a Newtown player, and Kaneshiro slid into the plate safely for a 3-1 Maui lead.

Central East Maui still had runners on second and third with just one out, but Wexler got a strikeout and a comebacker to end the threat.

Newtown put a runner in scoring position in the sixth when Ryan Uhl crushed a one-out, opposite-field double to deep right off Tavares, who reached 85 pitches as he struck out the next batter for his 12th K of the game. Nakama relieved Tavares and gave up a run-scoring single to Wes Esteves, Tavares’ first run allowed in the LLWS.

“When Kanon came on the mound, I told him the guy on third didn’t even matter at that point,” Bolduc said. “We only needed one out. I told him to focus on throwing strikes.”

Nakama walked the next batter on a full count before fanning Dean Hamilton to end the game.

“I liked our chances,” Hamilton said. “I felt good. I still feel good about it. The boys were doing what they were supposed to do.”

Central East Maui 3, Newtown, Pa. 1

Newtown, Pa. 000 001 — 1 4 2

Central East Maui 200 001 — 3 6 0

Brayden Peiffer, Tyler Wexler (5) and Ryan Uhl; Evan Tavares, Kanon Nakama (6) and Matthew Yang.

W—Tavares. L—Peiffer. SV—Nakama.

Leading hitters: Newtown—Ryan Uhl 1-2, 2B, run.

Central East Maui—Brextyn Kamaha’o Hong 1-2, run; Cam Kaneshiro 1-2, run.

Records: Mid-Atlatnic 2-2. Central East Maui 3-1.

Next: Central East Maui vs. Lake Mary, Fla., 1 p.m. today.