OIA Baseball
Cougars pounce on Mules early en route to mercy-rule win in OIA semifinal round


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
April 25, 2025, 10:55pm

  

Fri, Apr 25, 2025 @ [ 3:00 pm ]

Leilehua

0

Kaiser

13

F/5TH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Leilehua 0 0000XX023
Kaiser 10 3 00XXX13120

W: Caleb Hamasaki    L: Zayden Winter

KAIS: Jesse Shinagawa 3-3 2 runs 4 rbi dbl trp; Caleb Hamasaki 5.0 IP 0 ER 5 K
LEI: Titan Pasco 1-3 / 1.6 IP 0 ER 2 K




WAIPAHU — No. 9 Kaiser busted out the bats early in a 13-0 rout of Leilehua to punch its ticket to the OIA Division I championship game. 

The East top-seeded Cougars (10-2) sent 14 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first inning and scored 10 runs on eight hits in the frame in a rout of the West second-seeded Mules (8-4) in the first of two semifinals at Hans L'Orange Park Friday. 

The game was called after the top of the fifth inning due to the 10-run differential mercy rule. 

Jesse Shinagawa led the hit parade for Kaiser, which pumped out 12 base-knocks off of Leilehua pitching. Shinagawa batted 3 for 3 — including a pair of extra-base hits in the opening frame — and finished with four RBI and two runs scored.

Shinagawa's RBI-double to right field plated Noah Sham to open the scoring. The right hand-hitting centerfielder also went to the opposite field with his two-out triple that brought in two more runs and extended his team's lead to 9-0. 

On the pitch, Leilehua starter Zayden Winter threw a 3-1 fastball when Shinagawa laced it to bring home Sham and Hayzen Inouye. 

"That's what I was sitting, got my pitch and just executed," Shinagawa said. 

Tanner Kagimoto also had a two-run double in the bottom of the first, when the Cougars took advantage of three Leilehua fielding errors. 

"The whole team kind of just bought in, you know — staying with our approach, staying simple, moving the guys over, everyone's not doing too much, just trying to get the base hit — and that kind of just gave us momentum throughout the whole game," Shinagawa said. 

Kaiser coach Josh Halemano was nearly at a loss for words when asked about the opening frame. 

"Yeah, you know, I don't know what it is. We just — I don't know, they were squaring the balls and being disciplined and not getting too big and just finding holes. I really can't say much about what happened, you don't see that often, you know, it wasn't like they were walking or making errors, so it was just pretty unreal to see," Halemano said. 

The Cougars added three more runs in the second on RBI-singles by Brennan Higa, Hayzen Inouye and Shinagawa. 

Halemano credited Shinagawa for putting together a solid senior season to-date. Shinagawa is batting .364 on the year and leads the team in runs scored (11). He has hit safely in three straight games and has recorded at least one hit in 10 of Kaiser's 12 games. 

"Amongst all our guys, he's our guy that's been disciplined the most. Guys are throwing anything and he's still getting it done, so it's just a credit to him that he's staying disciplined, he's not getting too big and he has enough pop to drive the ball, so it's good for him. He struggled last year, so this year has been huge for him and us," Halemano said. 

Backed by a baker's dozen of runs, Caleb Hamasaki tossed a two-hit shutout on the mound for Kaiser. He logged five strikeouts and overcame six walks to match his longest outing of the season.

"He knows we got his back, so he's just gotta pitch strikes, force contact and we all knew he had this in him, so we're all confident in him," Shinagawa said of the junior pitcher. 

Halemano noted that Hamasaki struggled in his most recent outing, when he allowed seven runs (four earned) in three innings of work against Moanalua two weeks ago. 

"It's huge. Caleb's continued to work through this. He was kind of our No. 2 (pitcher) last year, so I know he's kind of  put a lot of pressure to be that guy again, but we're working more on the mental stuff and I think this helps him out going forward and we'll clean up a little bit more things and hopefully he'll be ready two weeks from now," Halemano said. 

Kaiser will be playing in its first OIA championship game since 1993 and trying for its sixth league crown in program history.

"Just us winning the East, the last time was 2006, so this is crazy. Hawaii Kai prides itself as a baseball community so hopefully we can continue this and it can kind of carry us a little bit as a community, so hopefully we can move forward with this — it's kind of crazy," Halemano said. 

The Cougars have won eight of their last nine games and snapped the Mules' five-game win streak. 

"We knew we were capable of this from the beginning of the season. Our coaches did a good job of bonding us all together. We're all close friends and I think that's what's key for us right now," Shinagawa said. 

Leilehua was seeking its first title game appearance since 2023, when it lost to Campbell. 


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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