Kamehameha wraps up ILH title
By Wes Nakama
Advertiser Staff Writer
The Kamehameha Schools baseball team repeated as Interscholastic League of Honolulu champions last night with an 11-5 victory over surging Mid-Pacific in a league tournament final at Ala Wai Field.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The Warriors (16-3) scored in every inning but the first as all nine batters in the lineup either got a hit or accounted for a run. They will be the ILH's No. 1 seed in next week's state tournament on Maui and will receive a first-round bye.
Kamehameha pitcher Isaac Kamai delivers against Mid-Pacific in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball tournament at Ala Wai Field. Kamai went the distance to earn the victory over the Owls.
MPI (11-8-1) will play Iolani, the regular-season champion, at 6 p.m. tomorrow at Ala Wai for the league's other state tournament berth.
Kamehameha had already secured its berth by winning the regular season, and the Warriors would have had a second chance to win the tournament had they lost last night. But their bats awoke in the third inning and were never silenced.
"That's the way it's been all season — (hitters) one through nine," said Kamehameha senior shortstop Keoni Ruth, who bats leadoff. "There's no individuals on this team, every guy just does his job to get on base or bring the run in. There's no one guy who steals the show."
The one who came closest was sophomore third baseman Ryson Mauricio, who tied the score at 1-1 in the second inning with an RBI groundout and then slammed a three-run triple into the right-field corner to make it 9-3 in the fifth.
But six other Warriors — Ruth, J.P. Kennedy, Kahe Santos, Matt Morgado, Dayne Ogawa and Travis Young — also drove in at least one run. Kamehameha also committed only one error and got a complete-game pitching effort from Isaac Kamai.
MPI took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on Marc Inamasu's run-scoring single, but the Warriors tied it in the bottom half and then took a 5-1 lead in the third on RBI singles by Ruth, Kennedy and Morgado.
Young's sacrifice fly in the fourth made it 6-1, and the Owls closed it to 6-3 in the fifth on Troy Hanzawa's sacrifice fly and a wild pitch. But Mauricio's triple highlighted a four-run fifth for Kamehameha and Mid-Pacific could manage only single runs in the sixth and seventh.
"All the kids did a fantastic job," Warriors coach Vern Ramie said. "They executed when they had to, got the hit when we needed it. And Isaac did a great job, too. He hung in there."
The same could be said for the Owls, who lost their tournament opener but rebounded to defeat Maryknoll, Iolani, Saint Louis and Punahou in a span of five days to earn a spot in last night's final.
Mid-Pacific coach Dunn Muramaru said asking his youthful team to post a fifth straight victory was not too much to expect.
"If you don't ask it, you'll never know, right?" Muramaru said. "The kids have played well and didn't quit. They've found a way to stay alive. But (Kamehameha) is a better team. They're a good representative for our league."
MID-PACIFIC (11-8-1) 010 021 1 — 5 6 4
KAMEHAMEHA (16-3) 014 141 x — 11 9 1
Grant Yamaguchi, Conan Young (3), Jayson Kramer (5) and Kip Masuda; Isaac Kamai and Baba Merino. W —Kamai. L — Yamaguchi.
Leading hitters: MPI — Marc Inamasu 2-2, RBI. Kamehameha — J.P. Kennedy 2-4, double, RBI; Ryson Mauricio triple, four RBIs; Dayne Ogawa triple, RBI.
