HHSAA Softball
Punahou's Young fans 14 in 6-1 win against Waipahu


  



Tue, May 7, 2013 @ [ 7:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Punahou 0 000051681
Waipahu 0 0 01000123

W: Jaci Young    L: Shevan DeFreitas

WAIP: Tali Viliamu 1-3 run; Shevan DeFreitas 5.0 IP 1 ER
PUN: Jaci Young 2-4 run rbi dbl / 7.0 IP 0 ER 14 K


Jaci Young allowed only back-to-back singles and struck out 14 and Punahou sent nine batters to the plate in a five-run sixth to rally by Waipahu, 6-1, Tuesday night in the opening around of the DataHouse Division I state softball tournament.

The Buffanblu (16-3) will play third-seeded Baldwin in a quarterfinal set for 3 p.m. Wednesday.

With the help of batterymate Kylie Popovich, Young mixed her pitches all night to keep the Marauders off-balanced at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium. Young hit the first batter of the game, but retired the next 11 in a row.

"Jaci's success on the mound, our catch, K.P. (Kylie Popovich), she's calling the game," Punahou coach Bob Makahilahila said. "That's impressive that a player can call that type of game. She's called it for (Young) all season. They have a really nice chemistry between the two of them."

Popovich said it's easy to catch Young when she's on her game.

"She makes it look so good," Popovich said. "All I have to do is sit there and catch the ball. When a pitcher can hit her spots like she does, oh, it's so good. We had 14 Ks tonight. That's amazing."

Young basically used her off-speed pitches against the heavy-hitting Marauders.

"You just have to go with Jaci's strengths," Popovich said. "We just threw off-speed all night. It really worked, so we kept going with that."

The Marauders (8-9) struck first in the bottom of the fourth. After Young struck out her sixth and seventh batters of the game, Taliilagi Viliamu singled to left-center. Tammy Viliamu followed with a line to right. Taliilagi went for third and it appeared the throw was going to beat her, but the throw bounced past the third baseman. Taliilagi broke for home and scored as Tammy took second on the throw home. But Young retired Tevanah Niuatoa on a fly to center to minimize the damage.

Meanwhile, Waipahu starter Shevan DeFreitas retired the first 10 batters she faced before giving up a one out single in the fourth to Popovich, but Punahou eventually left courtesy runner Paige Kawai stranded at second.

Young opened the fifth with a lead-off double. After Ari Hashimoto lined out to the pitcher, Amber Popovich walked. But DeFreitas got the next to batters to strand the runners.

Then the roof caved in on Waipahu in the sixth.

Thalen Masada led off with a single and took second when Kylie Popovich reached on a a fielding error by the pitcher while executing a sacrifice. DeFreitas switched positions with first baseman Taliiagi Vliamu.

Nicole Nishizawa flied out to right and the runners advanced a base. A wild pitch scored Masada from third, as courtesy runner Kawai took third. Vanessa Va'a reached on a fielder's choice grounder to second, but the second baseman's throw to the plate was wild, as the run scored with Va'a taking second to make it 2-1. Young aided her cause with an RBI single. After courtesy runner Sara Buck took second on a wild pitch, she scored on Hashimoto's single to center.

Taliilagi Viliamu moved back to first and DeFreitas went to second so that second baseman Laugatausala Pedebone could move to pitcher, inheriting a 2-0 count on Amber Popovich, who eventually walked. Krystin Wong reached on a fielder's choice grounder to short that forced Amber Popovich at second and put runners at the corners. Sarah Sumida's Rbi single made it 5-1, but Wong was gunned down trying for third to end the inning.

"That's the M.O. on this team," Makahilahila said. "They seem to come back when they need to and reach within themselves. All of our games, our runs have come in the fourth, fifth, sixth innings. It doesn't surprise me, but you get nervous as a coach."

"At the end, we were getting tired," Waipahu coach John Kapihe said.

Punahou added a run in the seventh on an RBI single by Va'a to make it 6-1.





Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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