Moanalua's Mark Kuga slides in safely at home to score a run against Castle. Sylvia Lee | SL

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032813_base_sl-7034.jpg - Sylvia Lee | SL

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Moanalua toppled first-place Castle from the ranks of the unbeaten, topping the Knights 11-1 in six-innings in OIA Red East play.

Na Menehune led throughout and scored 6 runs in the sixth-inning to end the game due to the 10-run mercy rule.

"I think we got lucky and we put the ball in play and our hits fell in. Castle is a great team and well coached, so it was one of those days our hits fell in," said Moanalua head coach Scott Yamada.

In Moanalua's first time up to bat, Kai Tachino scored the opening run and Nicholas Enrico's RBI single brought in Kristian Yap to put the home team up early, 2-0.

"They (Castle) are a really good hitting team and once they're hot they are hard to stop. I'm glad we could control it in the beginning," said winning Moanalua pitcher Jaraad Salas.

Moanalua's Tyler Fujimoto hit a single grounder past third-base in the bottom of the second inning. Then, with Micah Nicely at the plate, Fujimoto stole second base and came home to score off of Nicely's bunt making it 3-0.

Castle finally got on the scoreboard in the top of the sixth inning after Nicolas Gibbons scored off a wild pitch to make it 5-1.

But Moanalua extinguished any hopes of comeback in the bottom half of the inning, blowing the game wide open with a six run outburst.

Elijah Monis hit a triple RBI to right field that brought in Tyler Uchiyama. Brayton Sakai's single fly RBI scored Kyle Aganos who was a courtesy runner for Monis. Sakai scored after Casey Isa hit an RBI double. Mark Kuga's second RBI of the game brought in Isa, 10-1. Kuga scored the last run off a fielding error to put Moanalua up 10 runs to end the game.

"All our coaches told us to go out with a bang in the last inning. Castle never gives up so our coaches said if we have a chance to bury them, just bury them because we can't let them back in the game or else it will be harder for us," said Salas.

Salas and his defense held Castle to just 1 run and 2 hits the entire game.

"He struggled in the beginning and settled down which is good. He's a senior so he should be able to make adjustments, he did well," said Coach Yamada.  

"My first inning isn't the strongest inning. The defense helped and backed me up, I have a strong defense and I trust them," remarked Salas.

Nicholas Enrico had 4 RBIs and Mark Kuga contributed 2 for the Na Menehune.

Despite the loss, Castle remains in first place in the OIA Red East at 7-1. Moanalua (5-3) and Kaiser (5-3) now hold identical records, but the Cougars' win over Na Menehune earlier in the season gives them the tie-breaker.

"The parity of this league is so even, on a given day, anybody can beat anybody," said Coach Yamada.

Salas echoed the same sentiments as his coach, "It's a big confidence booster for us. We have been struggling earlier this year, our bats weren't coming alive that much. Our pitching and played defense well, but we couldn't support it with our bats. Giving Castle their first loss, it's a great confidence booster and it means we can hang with anyone team we face."