ISLE FILE
Lajola reaches tennis final
Advertiser Staff
'Aiea's Dennis Lajola advanced to the singles final of the Oceanic Time Warner Cable Honolulu Futures tennis tournament yesterday with a hard-fought 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over Miami's Ty D Trombetta at the University of Hawai'i courts.
Lajola will play Shane La Porte, of Hermosa Beach, Calif., who beat Lance Vodicka, 6-1, 6-1, in yesterday's other semifinal. Today's singles final will follow the 11 a.m. doubles final between Hawai'i's Ikaika Jobe and Brad Lum-Tucker against Carsten Ball and Rylan Rizza.
Lajola said Trombetta made him work for every point. "(His) range in the court is so wide," Lajola said. "He gets to a lot of balls and makes you play a lot of extra balls."
Trombetta returned the compliment, saying: "Dennis is really fast, and he's a good player."
LIU, SMITH WIN DOUBLES
Top-seeded Jing Jing Liu and Gurianna Smith defeated second-seeded Elwen Li and Maggie Deng, 6-4, 6-1, last night to capture the Lanikai Body and Bath Women's Night Doubles title at the Kailua Racquet Club.
Kelly Little and Janalle Kaloi beat Loni Matsunaga and Fleurette Houser, 8-5, in the third-place match.
BASEBALL
SHARKS STILL ALIVE
Katsuyuki Aihara struck out Michael McKenry with runners on second and third and two outs in the top of the ninth as the Honolulu Sharks escaped with an 8-7 win over the Waikiki BeachBoys yesterday in a Hawaii Winter Baseball East Division game at Hans L'Orange Park.
The Sharks (17-19-2) play the BeachBoys (18-19-1) in today's regular-season noon finale that will decide which team advances to tomorrow's championship game against West champion North Shore.
The Sharks scored four runs in the seventh — spiced by Argenis Diaz's two-run triple — to take an 8-4 lead only to see the BeachBoys score three runs in the ninth and nearly pull out the victory.
In the late game, Jeramy Laster hit a three-run homer and Dusty Ryan hit a solo shot as the North Shore Honu beat the West Oahu CaneFires, 10-2.
BASKETBALL
HPU WINS OPENER
Reserve guard Justonn Smith scored 20 points, on 10-of-11 shooting, and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Hawai'i Pacific men's team opened its season Friday night with a 74-44 victory over Golden State Baptist College at Blaisdell Arena.
Jason Curtis added 13 points and Rod Harmon contributed 12 points and nine rebounds for the Sea Warriors.
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