Waipahu holds off Moanalua, 6-4, to reach OIA Red semis


On a day full of upsets, the West fourth seed Waipahu followed suit, taking down East top seed Moanalua, 6-4, to secure a spot in the OIA Red semifinals Friday at Central Oahu Regional Park.

After two scoreless innings, Waipahu came alive in the third. Tammy Viliamu hit a deep triple to the left outfield, and Lauren Tauanu'u followed with a three-bagger of her own in the same spot to give the Lady Marauders a 1-0 lead.

Tauanu'u scored off of Shevan DeFreitas's RBI single to left field, and then with the bases loaded, Alyssa Lene was hit by a Leisha Yamauchi pitch which scored Nala Viliamu making it 3-0.

Starting pitcher Shevan DeFreitas was hampered with a leg injury, forcing the Mauraders to call on Tali Viliamu to pitch for the remainder of the game.

"We were trying to work her (DeFreitas) for the whole game, but Tali came out firing from the beginning, we told her to throw strikes and play good defense," said Waipahu coach Funa Kapihe.

"We're always here to help out, if someone gets in trouble we're always here to back her up, especially on our team and do the best we can," said Viliamu.

In the sixth inning, Waipahu added to their lead after Laugatausala Pedebone scored off Tammy Viliamu's base hit down the right field line. Tammy Viliamu scored off of Tauanu'u's fly out, giving the Lady Marauders a 5-0 lead.

Dormant for most of the game, Moanalua got on the scoreboard with 2 runs in the sixth inning when Najae Reed scored off of Chrissi Omaiza's RBI grounder past second base, and pinch runner Krislynn Gabriel came home on a fielding error.

"We got up there and hit the ball during our 5 run lead, but we lost it in the last 2 innings with a couple errors here and there," said Kapihe.

In the bottom of the final inning, Moanalua made a late push. Yamauchi hit an RBI single past the short stop to bring in Miki Sylva. Kiana Mattos-Felicilda scored another run as she slid into home safely. But with two outs, Viliamu forced Sakauye to hit a ground out to the third baseman to end the game.

"Moanalua is a good team and they played hard. I kept thinking that we need to get out of here and advance," said Viliamu.

"I told the girls to get one out at a time, even though we were up we wanted to get the outs," said Kapihe.

Waipahu will play Campbell at Central Oahu Regional Park, field 2 at 7 pm televised on OC 16.

"We faced them twice this season and gave them two good games," said Kapihe.



Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].