Kaiser's Brysen Chun-Ming and Luis Omphroy celebrate after a victory over Kapolei in the first round of the OIA Red playoffs. Brien Ing | SL

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Kaiser's Luis Omphroy connected a pitch to end the game against Kapolei via a mercy rule win in the fifth inning. Brien Ing | SL

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Kapolei's Aizon Kahana slides in safely at home plate to score a run against Kaiser. Brien Ing | SL

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Kapolei's Brandon Ellis slides in safely ahead of the tag of Kaiser's Michael Austin. Brien Ing | SL

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Kaiser's Kelan Yoshioka was 3-for-4 with a double, a triple and 3 RBIs against Kapolei. Brien Ing | SL

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HAWAII KAI — Kaiser opened the postseason with a win Wednesday. 

The Cougars improved to 9-4 and won their seventh consecutive game in convincing fashion, pummeling Kapolei by a score of 15-5 in an opening round game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Divisision baseball tournament at their home field.

The Hurricanes, the fifth seed out of the Red West, saw their two-game win streak snapped and their season come to a close at 5-8.

No team in the league has been hotter than Kaiser, which has scored double-digit runs in each of its last four games. It finished in a three-way tie for second in the Red East with a 9-3 regular-season mark, but ended up fourth after a coin toss last week.

"Our last six or seven games we've been hitting pretty well," Kaiser coach Mark Rasmussen said. "I was kind of afraid because we had that long break. It was good to see us hit so well."

Things didn't start off well for the Hurricanes as Cougars' senior Kelan Yoshioka opened the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff triple that rolled all the way to the adjacent softball field. 

"It was a 3-0 count and I know he was going to pitch a good strike, so I just tried to swing at a good one," Yoshioka said.

With two outs, centerfielder Jeshua Bitanga struck out on dropped third strike and Kapolei catcher Mykah Kuratani sent an errant throw down first base line and that rolled all the way to the fence, allowing Yoshioka and Bitanga to score.

Kapolei pitcher Aizon Kahana struggled in the second inning with three walks — two of them were awarded to the opposing pitcher, Noah Sakatani, the other to third baseman Kamalu Simeona with the bases loaded to bring in the third run of the game. Yoshioka returned to bat in the second inning and hit a bases-clearing double. 

Yoshioka finished 3 for 4 with a double, triple, three RBIs and a stolen base.

The Cougars scored eight runs in the second inning to jump out to a 10-0 lead.

Kapolei answered in the third inning, when Sakatani struggled to find the plate. He walked the leadoff batter, allowed a hit and hit another batter to load up the bases for first baseman Dylan White, who hit a fly ball to left field that found grass and scored the Hurricanes’ first run. 

After a fielder’s choice that scored another run, Sakatani threw a wild pitch to scored the runner from third. Sakatani finished as the winning pitcher, allowing five runs on eight hits in five innings pitched. He walked three and struck out one.

A few batters later, Kapolei scored another run on another fielder’s choice to cut the lead to 10-4.

The score held until the fifth inning, when Kahana helped his own cause with a ground-ball single to left. He then stole second base and finished 2 for 3 with an RBI, a stolen base and two runs scored.

Kapolei added a run when Kuratani dropped in a base hit over the first baseman on a checked swing to score Kahana.

The Kaiser bats went to work again in the bottom of the fifth. Kahana walked a batter then allowed a single to shortstop Michael Austin, who batted 3 for 4 in the game and scored twice. Kahana walked two more batters with two outs to give the Cougars another run.

Aaron Oda pinch hit for Sakatani and drove a ball into the right field gap for a two-run double to make the score 13-5. 

"Felt really good, because I only got one day of practice yesterday," said Oda, who has been rehabbing an ankle injury. "Knowing I could just come off the bench cold with a hit felt really good."

Luis Omphroy then hit a double over the head of the leftfielder to score two more runs end the game due to the 10-run mercy rule.

"I had no idea it was a walk-off," Omphroy said. "All I knew is that I wanted to get the runners in so we could get closer to that walk-off."

With the win Kaiser moves on to play Red West top-seed Campbell in a quarterfinal matchup Thursday. The Cougars have faced the Sabers in the second-round of the league tournament in each of the past three seasons.

"We told them we're going to face a very good team, they’re going to have good arms and are a well-coached team," Rasmussen said of Campbell. "We just have to keep doing what we've been doing and you never know what's going to happen.  I told them just worry about what we need to do, which is to throw strikes and play defense."

The quarterfinal winners secure a spot in the state tournament, which gets underway in two weeks.