Kailua's Keiki Kanahele-Santos makes contact with the ball for a double. Greg Yamamoto | SL

View image 1 of 1

---

Kailua's Keiki Kanahele-Santos makes contact with the ball for a double. Greg Yamamoto | SL

View image 1 of 1

---

KAILUA — Six different players recorded a hit to help Kailua to a 7-3 win over Moanalua Monday afternoon.

Lawson Faria doubled and scored twice and Keiki Kanahele-Santos added a double, an RBI and a run scored as the Surfriders rallied from an early deficit to improve to 2-0 in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red East Conference. Na Menehune, who failed to sustain a 1-0 first-inning lead thanks, in part, to seven errors, fell to 1-1.

The game was originally scheduled for Saturday morning, but was postponsed due to heavy rains and an unplayable field.

"We were super eager to play today," said Faria, who batted sixth and was the designated hitter. "We're a really young team. We've been working really hard to get where we're at and I think we're getting better and we're starting to come through."

Kailua was coming off a 6-3 win over Castle. In that game, the Surfriders took a 3-0 lead only to see the Knights tie it in the fourth, before scoring three runs in the final two frames.

"Right now, we're just trying to feel out our team and we're young. We're just trying to get better every day," Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. "We've been focusing on trying to swing the bat a little better, but hopefully we'll continue to come around."

Moanalua sent six batters to the plate in the top of the first. Leadoff man Casey Isa drew a walk and advanced to second on a single to left center by designated hitter Kristian Yap. Two batters later, Mark Kuga single to right field to bring Isa in to score.

Kailua loaded the bases in the second inning — the first two batters were hit by Na Menehune starting pitcher Nicholas Manago. Jameson White — the Surfriders' No. 9 hitter — hit a sacrifice fly to right that Faria tagged up on. Kanahele-Santos and Brenden Odo allowed score in the inning to give their lead a 3-1 lead.

Kyle Aganos put down a bunt single with two outs in the top of the fourth and came around to score a double to left by Chance Kinoshita to cut Kailua's lead to 3-2.

White got a two-out basehit of his own on a single to left in the bottom of the inning. The ball got past the Moanalua left field and White ended up at second base. Kanoho then reached on a throwing error by the third baseman, which allowed White to score.

"We were giving them extra outs and you can't do that against any team — whoever you play," Moanalua coach Scott Yamada said.

The Surfriders added three more runs in the bottom of the fifth when Awa Byers, Noah Ah Yat and Faria crossed the plate.

"We're just trying to get singles and just do anything to get on base," Faria said. "We worked a lot of our stuff that we've been working on and the hard work is starting to pay off."

Faria said an interference call on a Kailua baserunner in the bottom of the first inning — which erased a run — fueled the offense the rest of the way. Dalton Kalama was called out due to runner's interference going from first to second. Kalama crossed in front of Isa, the Na Menehune second baseman, who lost the ball shortly after fielding it. After talking it over for a few minutes, the two-man umpire crew sent Kanoho — who scored what would have been the Surfriders' first run of the game — back to third and ruled Kalama out.

"We thought that wasn't really the right call, but it made us want to do better and that's what kind of started the fire for us," Faria said.

Ishigo said it was a tough break, but was pleased to see his team overcome it.

"It was still early in the game, but it was a pretty big call to have interference," Ishigo said. "Erasing runs off the board is something that doesn't usually happen in baseball, but in this case it did and we ended up with nothing in the first inning, so it was good to come back from that."

Matt Hanano was the winning pitcher and allowed two runs on five hits with two strikes in four innings. He walked one batter before giving way to reliever Joey Cantillo, who allowed one run on two hits and picked up the three-inning save.

"It was good because we expect them to do well," Ishigo said of the pair. "We don't run pitch counts very high this early in the season, so we're counting on many different people to come through and pitch for us."

Manago, who gave up five runs on four hits with one walk in four-plus innings of work, took the loss for Moanalua. Tanner Inouye replaced him for the final two frames.

Kailua hosts Kalani Wednesday, while Moanalua visits Kaiser Saturday.