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Kalani Takase | ScoringLiveApril 27, 2024, 12:22am
Fri, Apr 26, 2024 @ [ 6:30 pm ]
W: Jayden Hunt L: Dylan Wong
KAIL: Kaimana Burgo 2-3 run rbi trp; Kaalekahi Kuhaulua 3.0 IP 0 ER 5 KAIEA: Bostan Ujimori 1-3 dbl; Kylan Kono 3.3 IP 0 ER 5 K
MANOA — Number nine nearly brought Corey Ishigo to tears.
Kailua cashed in on four uncharacteristic errors by Aiea and used a familiar formula on the mound to claim its 15th league championship and first since 2017 Friday night.
The ninth-ranked Surfriders (13-2) pulled away for an 8-1 win over eight-ranked Na Alii (12-3) in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I baseball tournament before a crowd of about 900 fans at Les Murakami Stadium.
It is Kailua's ninth OIA crown under Ishigo, the longtime coach and alumni of the program.
"It's the toughest one, the ninth one, for us," said an emotional Ishigo in his postgame comments.
The Surfriders rapped out nine hits, including two apiece from leadoff batter Kaimana Burgo and clean-up hitter Masao Minami.
"Us being young I think we've got a lot to learn, a lot to improve on, but I'm still happy with where we're at now, how we're working, how we hold ourselves as a team and how we work together," said Minami, whose double to the gap in right-center scored Kaalekahi Kuhaulua and gave his team a 3-1 lead.
Minami stroked the first pitch of the at-bat from Kylan Kono — who had just moved from shortstop to the mound in relief of starter Dylan Wong — to the power alley, which allowed Kuhaulua to score from second.
"I got jammed off the hands," Minami recalled. "I knew it was going to be over (the outfielder), but I was just thinking in my head that if I barreled that up, I probably could have hit it over (the fence)."
An interference call against Aiea on a run down just prior to Minami's double extended the inning.
Kuhaulua singled to the opposite (left) field and took a hard turn toward second. At the same time, Burgo — who had reached on a one-out walk and then proceeded to steal second — advanced to third on Kuhaulua's single. As Kuhaulua drew the attention of Aiea catcher Cody Kamihira, Burgo broke home and crossed home plate shortly before interference was called on Kamihira when he made contact with Kuhaulua on the base paths.
"I think that absolutely set the tone for the inning," said Minami, who watched the sequence from the on-deck circle.
"I think that really advanced us mentally, really gave us the momentum to carry through that inning," he added.
Aiea coach Brennan Alejo credited Kailua for putting on the pressure with some aggressive base running.
"We told our boys to minimize (mistakes). We knew that they would do stuff like that. We thought we had that play there at first, but that interference call I think that really turned (the game) for us and then the thing kind of just spiraled right there," Alejo said.
The play resulted in an error assessed to the Na Alii catcher for obstruction.
"We want him to give it up, yeah, get that ball to the second baseman, but it's fine. I was going to yell to ‘stop,' let ‘em run to second and kind of work from there, but, you know, we tried to get the out," Alejo said.
Burgo's run gave the Surfriders the lead for good and Minami's RBI-double made it a two-run cushion. The next two batters, Rayvin Pagan and Kalama Carreira got on via a walk and having reached on an error, respectively. Minami came home to score on the error, Pagan eventually scored on a balk by Kono and Carreira crossed the plate on an RBI-single by Ryce Aoki.
"It continued the inning and we got to score a couple more runs, so that helped us a lot," Ishigo said of the obstruction call.
Kailua held a 6-1 lead after three innings and added a pair of insurance runs on RBI-singles by Sage Tokoro and Burgo in the sixth.
Meanwhile, the Surfriders got three innings of two-hit ball from their freshman pitcher, Kuhaulua. The southpaw allowed an unearned run in the top of the first for Aiea's lone run and issued two walks before he gave way to Jayden Hunt, who fired four shutout innings of relief to get the win.
"It feels amazing," said Hunt, who improved to 6-0 on the year with an earned run average of 0.77.
"This team is good. We got defense, you know, we work on everything. We work hard, practice doesn't make perfect, but hey, it works," Hunt added.
Hunt registered 27 of his 34 pitches for strikes. He struck out three Na Alii, walked none and gave up only one hit.
"We're always confident in Jayden in his ability to do his job, so we were very excited to see Jayden out here today," Minami said.
Before Kuhaulua moved from the pitcher's mound to right field to start the top of the fourth inning, he escaped a jam in the bottom of the third. After Kuhaulua struck out the first batter he faced in the frame, he allowed back-to-back singles to Kono and Ryen Abe. However, Kuhaulua came back with a pivotal strikeout of Aiea's third batter, Brennen Panis, for the pivotal second out. He then got clean-up hitter Bostan Ujimori to ground out to shortstop to escape the jam.
"That was big," Hunt said of Kuhaulua's strikeout of Panis. "We felt like we took over the game."
Minami praised the performance of Kuhaulua, who has given a verbal commitment to the University of Hawaii.
"I think our freshman is great. His mindset is really just, he's going out there — it doesn't matter what age he is — I think he just goes out there and attacks and he adjusts well," Minami said.
Kuhaulua has logged nine innings over five appearances. Friday's outing matched his longest of the season.
"He's good under pressure and that's why we all love him," Minami added of Kuhaulua, who has recorded 19 strikeouts against five walks on the year.
Ishigo and the Surfriders have had the luxury of a plethora of arms over the course of the season.
"I don't think we had someone throw a (complete game) this year," Ishigo said. "We have so much arms. It's hard when we have two games in a week to try to get them all in, but it's still difficult."
Not long after the final out was recorded and Kailua received its championship plaque, Ishigo was swarmed by his players in celebration.
"That's my family," he said. "I treat them like family and they're all my kids."
Ishigo pointed to the team's cohesiveness as a key factor in its success so far this spring.
"This team, we have great people on this team. I think it's different than others, where that they all have good grades — this is the first year nobody is on academic probation — and they're great people, too, off the field," he described.
Aiea's four errors led to all eight of Kailua's runs being unearned, much to the chagrin of Alejo.
"I don't want to say the moment got too big, but I think we probably squeezed the ball a little too tight," he said. "I think pressure kind of got to us a little bit, I think, and then once that momentum shifted, the noise got a little loud rumbling over here (and) it's tough to come back."
The second-year Na Alii coach, also an alum of his program, is hopeful of his squad bouncing back at the state tournament a little more than two weeks from now.
"I don't think these boys thought they could get this far, so I think even to be in this position it's amazing for them. They can carry this into states, but a lot of people came out for them. I think they impacted the community a lot more than they think, so we lost out here on the field, but I think we won a lot off the field today," Alejo said.
Aiea was seeking its 11th OIA championship and first since it won a league title in Division II in 2015.
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