OIA Baseball
Pearl City charges past Menes to advance


  



Thu, Apr 19, 2018 @ [ 3:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Moanalua 0 000100130
Pearl City 0 1 0021X4101

W: Cade Halemanu    L: Brayden Gushiken

PC: Sam Prentice 3-4 2 runs 2 trp; Cade Halemanu 7.0 IP 0 ER 10 K
MOA: Christian Capinia 1-2 rbi; Shane Cachola 1.0 IP 0 ER 2 K


PEARL CITY  Cade Halemanu threw a complete-game, three-hitter and the Chargers belted out 10 hits to stymie Moanalua, 4-1, in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I quarterfinals at Pearl City on an overcast Thursday afternoon.

The Chargers (9-4 overall), who finished second in the OIA West, advance to face the OIA East's top seed Kailua (11-2 overall) for the third-straight year on Friday pending the location.

"We're definitely up for the challenge," Halemanu said.

"We know who we are as a team, but we can play better than what we've been doing this season," said centerfielder Sam Prentice.

Pearl City also clinched a spot in the Wally Yonamine Foundation Division I Baseball Championships after missing out last season.

"It's redemption this year. Things weren't falling for us, but we worked hard in the offseason. Today was another game, but I don't want to make it bigger than it is," Prentice said.

Halemanu struck out a season-high 10 batters and walked two in the win. 68 of the 107 pitches were for thrown strikes.

"He did well. He was throwing a lot of strikes that helped," Pearl City coach Wes Yonamine said of his starting pitcher.

"That guy is always lights out and we always have confidence in him," added Prentice.

He also went 2 of 4 at the plate with two RBIs and two doubles and Sam Prentice was 3 of 4 with two triples and two runs scored.

"Every at bat I'm trying to do my job for the team. It's always a different pitcher and we had to make adjustments," Prentice said.

Carter Hirano led off with a walk in the bottom of the second inning and stole second. Caleb Young golfed a double that dropped into right field that brought in Hirano for the game's first run.

Cody Isa led off with a single to left to start the game, but Halemanu handcuffed Na Menehune striking out four of the next five batters.

"Everyone was making plays on defense and it was a team effort and came out with a 'W'", Halemanu said.

Halemanu shut out Na Menehune for the next two innings until he walked Cade Fernandez to lead off the the top of the fifth. Fernandez moved to second on Tyler Nakata's sacrfice bunt and Trent Nakata reached on error on the second baseman then moved to second on Zak Tachino's second sacrifice bunt of the game. Christian Capinia drove in Moanalua's only run on the game with a single up the middle to tie the game at 1. Na Menehune threatened to load the bases, but Halemanu struck out Andrew Oasay to come away unscathed.

"It was huge and came through with the job," Halemanu said.

Na Menehune went through five pitchers for the game with Breyden Gushiken taking the loss. Prentice took Gushiken's 1-2 pitch deep to right field for a lead-off triple and Halemanu brought him in with a double deep to left. Gushiken was lifted for Shane Cachola who struck out and walked two in one inning of work. Jensen Kaya added another run by grounding to third, but hustled to first beat the throw to bring in Kendric Nakamura for a 3-1 lead.

"That was big, he's been getting big hits for us," Yonamine said of Prentice.

"It's easier with runners in scoring position and get the ball to the outfield," Halemanu said.

Ethan Kamei started on the mound for Moanalua and got Alihi Rodrigues to ground out to short, but it was deja vu for the Chargers as Prentice's second triple of game almost landed in the same spot and again, Halemanu followed up with another RBI double to pad the lead and never looked back.

"Cade was working hard and got my back. Everybody steps up no matter what," Prentice said.

Halemanu and his defense turned in two clean innings as he fanned Noah Enrico and Cole Souza before Dreydon Von Oelhoffen grounded out to second to end the game.

Na Menehune (8-5 overall) drop to the fifth-place bracket to face Leilehua (8-6 overall) on Friday at 3 p.m.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].




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