Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Na Menehune to host Surfriders in OIA East showdown




The Oahu Interscholastic Association baseball season rolls into its first weekend with a slate of six Division I games over the next two days, including five games on Saturday.

In one of the games of note Saturday, Kailua will pay an afternoon visit to Salt Lake for a 3 p.m. game against Moanalua in an Eastern Division tilt.

The Surfriders (1-0) are coming off an 8-3 win over Castle at home Wednesday. Despite the five-run win, coach Corey Ishigo knows his team is far from playing its best baseball.

"We can get a lot better; we're not even close to where we want to be," Ishigo said.

Kailua played 10 preseason games, but many of the parts are still getting warmed up, Ishigo said.

"We use the preseason as season because our players don't play baseball year round," Ishigo explained. "Our pitchers don't throw off the mound until the preseason, our hitters don't get to see live pitching until the preseason so we're not ready."

Despite that the Surfriders rapped out 11 hits against the Knights and failed to score in just one inning. Keiki Kanahele-Santos batted 2 for 4 with a pair of RBIs and Brendan Odo also drive in two runs. Dustin Imanaka, Lawson Faria and Noah Ah Yat each paired hits in the win.

"We don't even have a set lineup so we're going to continue to figure out our puzzle," Ishigo said. "We have a lot of pieces that are still not in place. It's going to be a continuous process I think throughout the season until we figure out something that will work best for our team."

Matthew Hanano scattered six hits in 5 2/3 scoreless innings of work on the mound to pick up the win Wednesday. He also doubled, walked twice and scored twice at the plate.

The good news for Ishigo is his squad is an experienced one. The Surfriders have 12 seniors on the roster, including last year's OIA East Player of the Year in Dustin Imanaka, who earned Second Team All-Hawaii honors as a junior.

"Just being there over the years and being there through this whole process of when the season starts till the end of the season, I think that helps," Ishigo said. "They're definitely bigger, stronger and faster than last year or when they were freshmen."

Others who earned all-league honors as juniors last year include outfielders Hanano, Kanahele-Santos and shortstop Odo.

"They're loaded," Moanalua coach Scott Yamada said of Kailua. "I think they're just loaded. They have returnees at key positions and pitching wise, the depth is there."

Meanwhile, Yamada's team is looking to bounce back from a 3-2 nine-inning loss at home against Kalani Wednesday.

Na Menehune (0-1) used five pitchers in the game. Ace starter Tanner Inouye went four innings and allowed two runs (one unearned) on three hits. He struck out five and walked two.

Andrew Oasay had two of Moanalua's five hits in the game. Kekaulike Kalua and Skyler Yamamoto each walked twice and drove in a run.

"We're headed in the right direction, but it's just a matter of getting everyone healthy," Yamada said. "It's still early in the season, but trying to get those guys healthy and keeping them healthy is going to be a key for us."

Among the injured is sophomore second baseman Cody Isa, who did not play against Kalani, and senior third baseman Jarred Soriano, who got hurt in practice Tuesday but did play in the opener.

"We were pretty healthy until the last week of the preseason and that's when a couple of kids got hurt," Yamada said. "One of them pulled a hamstring and we had two kind of freak accidents just at practice. We were hitting the ball pretty good toward the ending of the preseason but we've got some banged up kids at a couple key positions so we'll see if they'll be ready for Saturday."

Inouye, a 6-foot pitcher/infielder, and Oasay, a sophomore pitcher/utility, were both Second Team All-OIA East picks in 2015. Yamada said he could foresee a breakout year for Soriano.

"He's been working really hard, he's one of my captains and I hope his leadership qualities will just be contagious as far as guys feeding off of him," Yamada said.

Kailua will start junior left-hander Joey Cantillo Saturday while as of Thursday night, Yamada said he that had yet to decide on his starting pitcher.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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