Mid-Pacific stays alive in ILH baseball tournament

By Stacy Kaneshiro
Advertiser Staff Writer

Defending state champion Mid-Pacific Institute kept its state tournament hopes alive by ousting Punahou, 4-3, from the Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball double-elimination tournament last night at Ala Wai Field.

The Owls (13-5, 3-1 tournament) will play Kamehameha at 6 p.m. on Tuesday at Ala Wai. The Warriors (15-3, 3-0) can win the double-elimination tournament with a win, as well as the overall title having won the regular-season crown.

Mid-Pacific must beat Kamehameha twice to win the tournament just to face the Warriors a third time for the overall title. If the Owls lose Tuesday, they will play regular-season runner-up Iolani on Thursday for the second ILH state berth. Kamehameha has already secured a state berth; it's just a matter of which seed.

"This feels great," said MPI pitcher Harrison Kuroda, who was credited with the win with 4¡ innings of relief of starter Jayson Kramer. "Earlier in the season, we weren't winning. It's good to be winning again."

It was a tough ending for the Buffanblu (10-8-1, 3-2), who staked starter Kasey Ko to a 2-0 lead in the third inning, only to see the Owls send 10 batters to the plate in a four-run fourth inning.

"The better team won tonight," Punahou coach Eric Kadooka said. "They beat us three times this year."

The Buffanblu got their two runs in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Michael Kim and RBI double by Mark Veneri. Veneri's double chased Kramer for Kuroda, who inherited runners at second and third with two outs. Landon Nakata hit a slicing liner to right-center, but right fielder Ryan Asato made a shoestring catch that saved two runs.

Before Veneri's double, Asato made a nice catch in right-center on a fly ball by Ko.

"He made some great catches," MPI coach Dunn Muramaru said. "(Assistant) Kenji Nakanishi kept putting him (Asato) in the right spot."

The Owls stormed back in the top of the fourth. After three consecutive singles loaded the bases, Asato was hit by a pitch to force across the first run. Randy Rundgren then drilled a two-run double to right-center to put MPI up 3-2. Ko was replaced by Shaun Kiriu, who hit Grant Yamaguchi with a pitch to load the bases. After retiring the next two batters, a wild pitch scored the fourth run.

Punahou got a run back after Nakata singled with runners at first and second, but a run scored on the play because of an error.