OIA Baseball
Ah Yat's grand slam gives Kailua top East seed


Spencer Honda | ScoringLive
April 13, 2018, 8:49pm

  


Fri, Apr 13, 2018 @ [ 3:00 pm ]

Kaiser

2

Kailua

5

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8910 R H E
Kaiser 0 001000001271
Kailua 0 0 01000004592

W: Ryan Inouye    L: Tyler Dyball

KAIL: Jalen Ah Yat 3-5 run 4 rbi HR; Bryson Ballesteros 7.0 IP 0 ER 9 K
KAIS: Antonio Omphroy 2-4 2 runs; Tyler Dyball 5.0 IP 4 ER 5 K


KAILUA — Jalen Ah Yat did it again.

For the second time this week and in back-to-back games, Kailua junior Ah Yat knocked a grand slam over the right field fence, this time to walk off with the top East seed for the Oahu Interscholastic Association Playoffs after outlasting Kaiser in 10 innings Friday afternoon at the Surfriders' home field.

The Cougars plated a go-ahead run in the top half of the 10th inning with Antonio Omphroy scoring after the throw to third base on his steal attempt sailed a bit too high.

Kailua followed with a lead-off walk from pinch hitter Brandon Sarae. Dayne Ishigo's sacrifice bunt attempt went back to Kaiser pitcher Ty Dyball, but he was unable to field it. Dyball then pelted Cody Riturban to load the bases with one out.

On the first pitch offering, Ah Yat went yard for the walk-off grand slam.

"I just tried to square up the ball like coach Corey (Ishigo) asked and it came to me. I got the pitch I wanted and I swung," Ah Yat said.

Ah Yat's four-RBI dinger capped a 3-for-5 day for the lefty first baseman and was his second in three days. He hit one out in a 10-0 win over Roosevelt on Wednesday to give the Surfriders a 5-0 lead.

Stone Parker drove in the other run for the Surfriders in the bottom of the fourth with a chopper past the shortstop to score Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo from second base to tie it at 1.

Bryson Ballesteros got his fourth start on the mound and went the regulation distance of seven innings. He allowed three hits and struck out nine batters.

Ballesteros' lone run allowed came in the top of the fourth when he hit Omphroy with a pitch to lead off the inning. Omphroy stole second base and advanced to third on Gyson Oshiro's ground out. On the second pitch to the next batter, catcher Kalua Neves was unable to glove a low thrown ball as Omphroy scored easily on the passed ball to make it 1-0.

Sophomore Ryan Inouye was tabbed with his first win in three innings of relief work.

"Bryson did a good job throwing strikes and so did Ryan when he came in. They did what they needed to do to get out of jams," Ah Yat said.

Tyler Bender got the nod on the rubber for Kaiser in just his second appearance of the season, going 4-1/3 innings with two strikeouts and one earned run allowed on Parker's game-tying hit in the fourth inning.

On the other hand, Dyball came out the bullpen for the first time this season in his sixth appearance and pitched a solid five innings with five strikeouts. However, a walk, his own fielding error and a hit batsman in the final frame led to giving up the walk-off grand slam.

Kailua finishes the regular season at 10-2 and will have the No. 1 East seed and a first round bye in next week's OIA Playoffs.

"We get more time to work on things and get better. I feel like we can do a lot better as a team," Ah Yat said.

With Kalani defeating Castle Friday afternoon, a Kailua loss to Kaiser would have given the Falcons the top seed instead. A Castle victory over Kalani paired with Kaiser beating Kailua would have given the Cougars the second seed and an opening round break. The Surfriders had already clinched the first round bye entering this afternoon's game.

Instead, Kaiser finishes its season at 7-5 and will have the No. 3 seed.

Correction: Kaiser will have the No. 4 seed and Moanalua will be seeded third.


Reach Spencer Honda at [email protected].




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