OIA Baseball
Kaiser posts big innings early in 14-4 win over No. 5 Kailua


  



Sat, Apr 19, 2014 @ [ 11:00 am ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Kailua 0 20110X453
Kaiser 4 0 601XX14101

W: Noah Sakatani    L: Matthew Hanano

KAIS: Kelan Yoshioka 1-2 3 runs 3 rbi HR; Noah Sakatani 3.7 IP 1 ER 5 K
KAIL: Awa Byers 2-3 run 2 rbi HR; Daniel Thomas 2.0 IP 1 ER 2 K


HAWAII KAI — Kelan Yoshioka was tired of not getting his pitch, but when he finally did he made it count.

Yoshioka walked in each of his first three plate appearance before belting a three-run home run to right centerfield that sealed Kaiser's 14-4 win over fifth-ranked Kailua in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East regular-season finale for both teams Saturday afternoon.

The Cougars pounded out 10 hits and scored six runs in the first three innings to improve to 8-4 with their sixth straight win. Aside from a 22-run outburst in a season-opening win over Castle, it was the most runs in a single game this year.

"It feels great because it's our senior night and (Kailua) always plays us tough, so to know that we could get a good win out of it is good," said Kaiser first baseman Aaron Oda, who hit a pair of doubles and drove in two runs.

Both teams have already secured a spot in the 12-team OIA Red Tournament, but they will have to wait until Monday to find out their final seeding. Kailua, which had a three-game winning streak snapped with the loss, is 1/2 a game ahead of second-place Moanalua. Kaiser is 1/2 a game behind Moanalua in third place and Roosevelt is 1/2 a game behind Kaiser in fourth. Moanalua and Roosevelt play at 3:30 p.m. Monday at Stevenson Middle School.

"It's a good confidence-booster and we've just got to carry it into the playoffs, get a few key wins in and make it to states; that's the goal," said Yoshioka, the Cougars' catcher and leadoff batter. "We're feeling good and pretty confident, we're practicing hard, getting the plays done, hitting the ball so we feel good going into the playoffs."

The first five batters in the Kaiser lineup accounted for nine runs and seven RBIs. Second-batter Michael Austin and fifth-batter Jeshua Bitanga each scored twice.

"For the last five or six games, the top four, five guys have been hitting the ball all over the place, so they're doing really good," Cougars' coach Mark Rasmussen said. "The bats have been coming alive, I think they have a lot of confidence now, so that's pretty much helped us the whole second round."

Yoshioka and Austin opened the bottom of the first with back-to-back walks. After Oda laid down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners into scoring position, Curt Clivio reached on an error, which allowed both runners to score. Bitanga followed and also reached on an error and eventually came home on a wild pitch by Kailua starter Matt Hanano.

Hanano retired just one of the six batters he faced and was the losing pitcher. Daniel Thomas replaced him and lasted two innings before he was chased in the third inning. That's when Kaiser sent 11 batters to the plate and got four base hits en route to six runs in the frame.

Thomas hit two of the first three batters he faced in the third before giving way to Royce Komesu. Komesu struck out the first batter he faced, but allowed the next six batters to reach base. Kamalu Simeona hit an RBI double to right to make the score 7-2 before Oda crushed the first pitch he saw from Komesu to deep center, which brought Yoshioka and Austin in to score.

"I was just trying to hit a small one and bring my guys in," Oda said. "Mike (Austin) clutched up — because they (intentionally) walked Kelan — and he clutched up with a base hit and I was just looking to do the same thing."

Clivio plated Oda with a ground ball single through the left side of the Kailua infield. The Cougars scored four of their runs in the inning with two outs.

"It's huge, especially against Kailua, because they can put up runs, they can put up numbers, so that was huge to put up all those runs. We needed those," Rasmussen said.

Kailua scored a run in both the fourth and fifth innings to cut the deficit to 10-4, but Oda scored on a Bitanga single in the bottom of the fifth and Yoshioka induced the mercy rule with his three-run homer to right centerfield to end the game.

"I just stayed in my zone and then he just pitched a good pitch to me and I hit it over," Yoshioka said.

Rasmussen was happy to see his team keep the pressure on despite a large lead for most of the game.

"Beating a team like that — they're so competitive, they're really well coached and it's never over until its over because those kids never quit and that's what we try to stress to our kids," Rasmussen said. "Even when we're up seven runs I said to our kids that 'You guys cannot die, these guys are going to come back, so don't relax.'"

Noah Sakatani allowed two runs in 3 2/3 innings of relief to pick up the win. He truck out five batters and walked three.

Awa Byers hit a two-run home run in the second inning and Brendan Odo and Keiki Kanahele-Santos each drove in a run for Kailua, which used five pitchers.

It was the most runs allowed in a single game by the Surfriders, who entered Saturday having allowed a division-best 29 runs on the year.

Kaiser avenged a 5-3 loss to Kailua the first time the teams met back on March 26.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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