'Iolani gains semis of ILH baseball tournament
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
Some of 'Iolani School's baseball players attended their class prom last night, but earlier in the day the Raiders took a big step toward the really big dance — the Hawai'i High School Athletic Association tournament.
'Iolani beat St. Louis 6-1 in a winners' bracket game of the Interscholastic League of Honolulu tournament at Aloha Stadium. The Raiders (12-4) will play Mid-Pacific, a 5-3 winner over Kamehameha, in a semifinal game at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the stadium. The winner of the double-elimination tournament will play MPI for the ILH title and the league's lone berth in the state tournament.
St. Louis will play Punahou at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday in an elimination game at Ala Wai Field.
The Crusaders had their ace, senior right-hander Brandon League, on the mound against 'Iolani. But they committed five errors and a strong performance from Raiders starter Travis McGaughy doomed the Saints.
Only one of the six runs allowed by League was earned. With a handful of major-league scouts on hand to time his 90 mph-plus fastball, League struck out five and walked one before being removed with one out in the seventh inning.
But McGaughy was equally impressive, allowing only four hits and no earned runs before moving to left field with one out in the sixth.
"We always had respect for Travis McGaughy," St. Louis coach Dean Sato said. "He's a tough competitor. I think those errors affected our offense, but I still give all the credit to Travis."
'Iolani took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Blaine Umeda. St. Louis tied it at 1 in the third on a sacrifice fly by Milt Grado.
The Raiders went up 2-1 in the fourth on an infield RBI single by Jeremy Kamo, and tacked on two more runs in the sixth thanks to three errors by the Crusaders.
In the bottom of the sixth, St. Louis had a golden opportunity to catch up when it loaded the bases with one out against reliever Corey Yamamoto. But Brandon Sato's line drive was caught by second baseman Todd Yoshioka, who doubled off the runner at second to kill the rally.
"He hit it hard, and if it was three or four feet higher it would have gone through," Dean Sato said. "I thought it had a chance to go through anyway."
McGaughy, watching from left field, said he had confidence in Yamamoto.
"He's the No. 1 guy in our rotation, so I knew he could do the job," McGaughy said. "And things rolled our way."
After a shaky start, things started to roll McGaughy's way. He escaped a first-inning jam unscathed after St. Louis put runners on second and third with one out. He stranded two more runners in the third, and he got a 4-6-3 double play to end the fourth inning after a single by Sato.
"I felt I had only one good inning when I was in a groove, and that was the fifth," said McGaughy, a senior right-hander. "The other innings, I felt like I was trying to guide the ball in. But our defense played well, and I have to thank the offense. It's very hard to score runs off Brandon."
Lately, the same could be said for McGaughy.
"I didn't think he had his best stuff today, but he fought through it," 'Iolani coach Dean Yonamine said. "He battled."
IOLANI (12-4) 100 102 2—6 4 2
ST. LOUIS (11-5) 001 000 0—1 4 5
Travis McGaughy, Corey Yamamoto (6) and Travis Mitsuda. Brandon League, Julian Leon (7) and Nick Tudisco. W: McGaughy. L: League. S: Yamamoto.
Leading hitter: Iol— Blaine Umeda 3-3, 2 runs, RBI.
• MID-PACIFIC 5, KAMEHAMEHA 3: The Owls jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the third inning and got a complete-game effort from pitcher Ricky Bauer to advance past the Warriors.
MPI took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning on an RBI double by Kevin Khan, then went up 2-0 in the second on an RBI double by Vincent Farkas. The Owls scored three runs in the third on two walks and two singles.
Kamehameha will play Pac-Five at 3:45 p.m. Tuesday in an elimination game at Ala Wai Field.
MID-PACIFIC (13-3) 113 000 0—5 7 0
KAMEHAMEHA (9-7) 001 001 1—3 10 0
Ricky Bauer and Matt Inouye. Shannon Kahale and Danny Nitahara. W: Bauer. L: Kahale.
Leading hitters: MPI— Clint Copulos 1-3, 2 RBIs. Kamehameha— Bronson Sardinha 3-4, double; Hubert Pruett 2-3, RBI.
• Punahou 10, Damien 0: Peter Phillips, Tyler Tanaka and Matt Oda combined on a five-inning no-hitter as the Buffanblu routed the Monarchs in a game called after five innings.
Damien (2-14) 000 00—0 0 3
Punahou (9-7) 621 01—10 11 0
Brandon Tamanaha, Destin Alameda (1), Stean Abe (5) and Cheyne Kawamoto. Peter Phillips, Tyler Tanaka (4) Matt Oda (5) and Todd LaFountaine. W: Phillips. L: Tamanaha.
Leading hitters: Punahou—Reid Matsushima 2-2, 3 runs; Toby Hanzawa 3-3, 2 runs; Justin Ariki 3 RBIs, double.
• PAC-FIVE 3, MARYKNOLL 1: Jeff Soranaka pitched a four-hitter, as the Wolfpack eliminated the Spartans.
Maryknoll (3-13) 001 000 0—1 4 2
Pac-five (5-11) 200 010 x—3 4 2
Riley Maeda and Brandon Goshima. Jeff Soranaka and Korey Shinagawa. W: Soranaka. L: Maeda.
Leading hitters: Pac-Five—Jeris Nakamasu 2-3, 2 runs. Maryknoll—Sean Ortiz 2-3.
