Moanalua ousts Campbell from OIA tournament
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Moanalua High School baseball team may have quietly sneaked into the O'ahu Interscholastic Association tournament, but the Menehune made the biggest noise yesterday with a 4-3 first-round upset over Campbell, the Western Division's No. 1 seed.
Moanalua, the No. 4 seed in the East, will play at No. 2 Kaiser today in a 1 p.m. semifinal game. Pearl City plays at Kailua in the other semifinal.
For host Campbell, the season abruptly ends at 8-2. Unlike past years, when five OIA teams advanced to the state tournament, only three will receive berths next week. The 20-day teachers strike caused the state tournament field to be reduced from 12 teams to eight.
"We cannot blame the strike; we simply didn't win the game we needed to win," Campbell coach Lane Watanuki said. "You gotta give credit to Moanalua. My hat's off to them."
The Menehune (8-3) won despite a 13-strikeout, two-walk performance by Campbell starter Chad Bailey. Stephen Green scored the go-ahead run with one out in the top of the sixth inning.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Sabers had the tying run on third base with two outs, but reliever Jeffrey Say came in and got a strikeout to end the game.
"We won with execution on offense and defense," said Moanalua coach Scott Yamada, a former Campbell assistant under Watanuki. "With (Bailey), we had to take whatever we could get."
The Menehune took advantage of a single and two walks to load the bases in the first inning, and Green stroked a two-run single for a 2-0 lead. Campbell scored on an error in the second inning and Keahi Kapana had an RBI single in the third to tie it at 2.
Say scored on Jim Stombach's squeeze bunt in the fifth inning to give the Menehune a 3-2 lead, but the Sabers tied it again in the bottom half after Kapana tripled and scored on an error.
Green led off the sixth with an infield single and advanced to second on a balk. Ronald Yasuda's one-out single moved Green to third, and Mike Miyagi followed with a bunt back to Bailey, who looked Green back to third before throwing to first. Green then dashed home and slid under the tag to beat the throw to the plate.
Pinch-hitter Jensen Mata led off the Campbell seventh with a single and advanced to second on Abe Lobetos' bunt single.
With the Moanalua infield playing in expecting a bunt, Campbell attempted a double steal. But Mata was caught at third when Menehune third baseman Ric Fukushima scrambled back to take the throw and apply the tag.
Lobetos moved to second on the play and to third on a fly out, but was stranded by Say's strikeout.
The left-handed Bailey, a 6-foot-4, 195-pound senior who is considered to be a major-league draft prospect, finished with a four-hitter. Moanalua starter Kyle Nakamichi, a 5-8, 150-pound junior, scattered eight hits over 6á innings.
"(Nakamichi) was getting ahead of batters and throwing strikes," Yamada said. "He's a crafty lefty."
Moanalua, which was 3-2 before the strike and rarely mentioned as being among the OIA's baseball elite, now is one win away from its first-ever state tournament berth.
"We played them in the preseason, and I told our guys that Moanalua was going to be one of the contenders in the East," Watanuki said. "You could tell that they would be tough."
Moanalua (8-3) 200 011 0—4 4 1
Campbell (8-2) 011 010 0—3 8 4
Kyle Nakamichi, Jeffrey Say (7) and Lorin Nakamura, Brett Tanigawa (7). Chad Bailey and Ikaika Trinidad. W—Nakamichi. L—Bailey.
Leading hitters: Moanalua—Stephen Green 2-3, 2 RBIs. Campbell— Abe Lobetos 2-3; Keahi Kapana 2-4, triple.
• Kaiser 9, Mililani 7: The host Cougars rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth in a game stopped before the seventh inning because of darkness.
In Kaiser's sixth, Rylen Yamamoto doubled and scored on Eric Ching's single. Chris Gallego was intentionally walked and B.J. Bernard singled home Ching to tie the game at 7. After a walk loaded the bases, Casey Fukuda walked to push across the go-ahead run and Ian Matsuda was hit by a pitch to score another.
Gainor Nitta hit a two-run home run in the first inning to give Mililani an 2-0 lead, but the Cougars came back with five in the third. The Trojans tied the game at 5 with three runs in the fourth, and regained the lead on Mark Dillatas' two-run home run.
Mililani (6-4) 200 302—7 8 4
Kaiser (8-2-1) 005 004—9 7 2
Adam Inaba, Weston Kurisu (3), Ryan Nakachi (6), Nick Mizusawa (6) and Kurt Miyahara. Todd Nishihira, Jason Peters (3) and Chris Gallego. WP—Peters. LP—Kurisu.
Leading hitters: Mililani—Gainor Nitta 2-4, home run, 3 RBIs; Weston Kurisu 3-4; Mark Dillatas home run, 2 RBIs. Kaiser—Rylen Yamamoto double, 2 runs; David Chu triple, 2 RBIs; Eric Ching 2-4, 2 RBIs; Chris Gallego 2 RBIs.
• Kailua 12, Leilehua 6: Five players — Travis Hayashida, Jory Pearce, Kamile Santos, Kawika Kekaula and Derek Yonamine — each had two hits to power the Surfriders over the Mules in an OIA tournament game.
Leilehua (6-4) 230 000 1— 6 10 0
Kailua (9-2) 304 050 x—12 13 4
Spencer Omalza, Jon Dolac (5), B.J. Clifton (6) and Jay Baptista. Kawika Kekaula, Kamile Santos (2) and Cody Texteira-Vickery. WP—Santos. LP—Omalza.
Leading hitters: Leilehua—Baptista 2-3, 2 doubles; Matt Omalza 2-4. Kailua—Mike Cathcart double, 2 RBIs; Travis Hayashida 2-4; Jory Pearce 2-3, double; Santos 2-3; Kekaula 2-4, double, 2 RBIs. Derek Yonamine 2-3, 2 doubles, 2 RBIs.
• Pearl City 11, Roosevelt 1: Blane Kagamida was 3-for-3, and Jonathan Serapion pitched a two-hitter to lead the Chargers in an OIA tournament game at Pearl City.
The game was called in the bottom of the sixth inning due to the league's 10-run rule.
Kagamida had three doubles, including a bases-loaded double in a four-run fourth inning. Cory Fujinaga had a two-run single with two outs in a five-run third inning.
Serapion struck out six and walked none in a complete game performance.
ROOSEVELT (7-4) 000 001— 1 2 1
PEARL CITY (7-3) 005 402—11 12 2
Chris Mols, Gabby Maunupau (3), Matthew Terukina (4), Jason Yasuda (5), Bryson Villanueva (6) and Joey Shimabuku; Jonathan Serapion and Gavin Concepcion. W—Serapion. L—Mols.
Leading hitters: Pearl City—Brandon Yamamoto 2-4, double, 3 runs; Gavin Concepcion 3 runs; Blane Kagamida 3-3, 3 doubles, 5 RBIs, 2 runs. Erik Mizoshiri double; Cory Fujinaga 2-4, 3 RBIs; Chad Itokazu 2 runs.
MIL PLAYOFFS
• Moloka'i stays alive: Moloka'i was impressive in the first of two games it had to win yesterday to keep alive its hopes of bringing the Friendly Isle a third straight state baseball championship.
Winning pitcher Keahi Rawlins hit 3-for-3, including a double and a two-run home run, as the Farmers conquered King Kekaulike 14-4 in the afternoon in the Maui Interscholastic League Tournament. After a short break, Moloka'i eliminated St. Anthony 10-2 last night.
Moloka'i plays Maui at 12:30 p.m. today in the final losers' bracket game of the double-elimination tournament. The winner of today's 12:30 game must defeat Baldwin twice to claim the Maui title and its only spot in next weekend's state championship tournament on O'ahu.
Those games will be at 3:30 today and, if necessary, tomorrow or Monday.
