Baseball
Waipahu beneficiary of Mililani's 6-2 win against Campbell


WAIPAHU - It couldn't get more bizarre than Mililani's 6-2 win against Campbell in Saturday night's O'ahu Interscholastic Association Red West regular-season finale.

The teams combined for eight errors that accounted for six unearned runs. And there were two flying bats.

The big beneficiary ended up being the Waipahu Marauders.

Earlier Saturday, Waipahu beat Leilehua, 8-0, and Pearl City beat Aiea, 5-0; leaving the Marauders and Chargers tied at 8-4. Meanwhile, the Sabers (11-1), who already clinched the West's top seed, and the Trojans (6-6), who would've been the fourth seed regardless of their outcome, were not going to improve their seeding. But the Trojans' win aided the Marauders in the tie-breaker for the Western Division's second seed. The top two seeds from each division draw first-round byes for the 12-team OIA Red tournament, which starts April 24.

Waipahu and Pearl City split their regular season meetings, but the Marauders won the next tie-breaker that looks at teams' strength of records. Waipahu swept Mililani, while Pearl City split with the Trojans. Had Mililani lost, it would've been 5-7 and tied with 'Aiea. While Waipahu swept Mililani, Pearl City did the same to 'Aiea, leaving Waipahu and Pearl City still tied and forcing a coin toss.

Still, a win to Mililani had meaning.

"We're trying to build a little momentum, get some positive things going for us," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said. "We had some losses where we just didn't execute. We made some mistakes, but our pitchers made some good pitches and got us out of it and kept us in the ball game. That's all we've been asking of our pitchers, just keep us in the ball game and give us a chance."

The Trojans will host East fifth-place Kalani (5-7) in the first round on April 24. They are hoping that first baseman Kody Yamada will be healthy by then. Yamada left Saturday's game with an apparent knee injury while jumping to cutoff a throw from right field after a single and landing awkwardly in the top of the fourth inning. He rolled on his back and had to be carried off the field by teammates. Hirayama said he was taken the hospital. Hirayama does not know if Yamada will miss the playoffs.

"He's been swinging the bat well lately," Hirayama said of his No. 3 hitter.

With the game tied at 2, Mililani exploded for four unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth inning against Campbell's third pitcher of the game, Brannon Okinaka, who started the game in right field.

Travis Maekawa led off by reaching on shortstop Dylan Ramie's throwing error. After taking second on Jensen Kim's sacrifice, Maekawa scored on Jameson Madrid's double to right-center. Pinch hitter Sean Sonognini singled to left as the runner pulled up at third. But left fielder Dewayne Sprinkel's throw was wild, allowing a run to score and Sonognini to take second. After Okinaka struck out pinch hitter Presley Alcover, Justice Nakagawa's RBI single made it 5-2. Nakagawa took second on the throw home. Okinaka was replaced by first baseman Rayven Kahana, who balked the runner to third before allowing an RBI single to Adam Connell before retiring Kanoa Wong on a pop to second.

Gabriel Miguel started on the mound for the top of the seventh. He walked Wesley Mendoza to lead off the inning before striking out Sprinkel. But Pedrina reached on a freak single to second. As Mendoza was running to second, he had to jump in front of second baseman Wong to avoid getting hit by the grounder probably distracting Wong in the process. After Okinaka flied out to left, Miguel was replaced by Kanoa Hironaka, who got Kahana to pop out to first to get credit with a save because the tying run was on deck.

The Sabers, looking to develop their pitching depth for the playoffs, capped starting pitcher Ian Kahaloa to four innings. He allowed no runs and two hits, while striking out three.

"Throughout the season, we've been throwing three, four guys a game," Campbell coach Rory Pico said. "Hopefully, we go deep into the playoffs, so we have get all of our relievers to get some time. It was planned before the game started. Our starter knew he was on a pitch count and was going to throw four innings. I wanted the other three guys (who pitched) to throw. We all understood that."

Austin Mariano made his pitching debut of the season to start the fifth. He walked Gavin Shon to start the inning. He took second on Beau Winchester's sacrifice and stayed there when Kellen Otsu ground out to the pitcher. Mariano then got Connell to swing and miss on a 2-2 pitch that skidded to the backstop, allowing Connell to reach first on the wild pitch that allowed Shon to take third. Wong's triple to left-center tied the game at 2 before Troy Kakugawa flied out to center.

The Sabers broke the scoreless tie in the top of the fifth against Mililani starter Cole Nakachi. Sprinkel led off with a triple to right-center and Pedrina walked. Okinaka struck out, bringing up Kahana. He fouled off the first pitch and in the process lost control of his bat that sailed by Pico, who was coaching at third base. Pico smoothly moved to avoid the bat. Two pitches later, Pedrina broke for second on a steal attempt, Kahana swung and miss on the 1-1 count. Again, his bat went flying, this time toward the OC 12 broadcast booth above the Mililani dugout.

While just about everyone stared in astonishment at the flying bat, catcher Madrid noticed Sprinkel mesmerized by the event and threw to third to pickoff the runner. But the third baseman Otsu apparently also was distracted and Madrid's throw skipped by him, allowing both runners to score to give Campbell a 2-0 lead.

"It was heads-up on Jimmy (Jameson Madrid)," Hirayama said. "I've never seen anything like that. I didn't really see it until both guys had scored."

Kahana eventually walked, prompting Hirayama to replaced Nakachi with Cristian Namoca. Tryzen Patricio hit a low liner to third baseman Otsu, who threw to first to double-off Kahana to end the inning.

The Sabers will still take the best record into the OIA tournament. Pico said the errors were rather uncharacteristic.

"I think a lot had to do with playing under the lights, playing on TV," Pico said. "To me, the guys looked tight, anxious, whatever you want to call it. They weren't themselves, which is fine because I think it was a good experience for them. I think this game is actually going to make us better."



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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