Baseball
Medeiros fans 14 as ninth-ranked Waiakea edges Hilo, 2-1


 



HILO, Hawaii — With first place and bragging rights on the line, Kodi Medeiros rose to the occasion Friday night.

Led by Medeiros' 14-strikeout performance, Waiakea rallied to a 2-1 win over crosstown rival Hilo before a crowd of about 550 fans at Francis Wong Stadium. The Warriors, who are ranked ninth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Baseball Power Rankings, improved to 7-1 and solidified their place atop the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I standings.

"It's great to get on top of the standings and it's great for our players because if we ever get to the state tournament, this is the kind of games we're going to be playing throughout the whole time," first-year Waiakea coach Jensen Sato said. "They played a hell of a game — Hilo High competed — and luckily we got the win."

The game was originally slated to be played at 3 p.m. at the Warriors' on-campus field, but was moved to Wong Stadium — and a primetime 6 p.m. slot — to accommodate the large crowd, which was split nearly evenly between fans of both teams.

"Every time we play Hilo High they always come, they always bring it and you've got to be on top of your game when you play them, especially with all their fans," Sato said. "it's just a big game in Hilo and it definitely had a playoff feel to it."

After a shaky start to the game, Medeiros found his command and put on a pitching performance that was simply stellar. He allowed the first two Hilo batters he faced to reach scoring position, but proceeded to strike out the side to end the Vikings' early threat.

"It was just a matter of settling down, finding a rhythm and just getting it in there and not doing trying to do too much," said Medeiros, who struck out at least one batter in every inning.

He fanned five straight at one point and retired 20 of the 29 batters he faced. Medeiros, who had just three three-ball counts and walked just one batter, blew away batters with his fastball and effectively used his slider and change-up to keep the Hilo offense at bay.

"That kid is an unbelievable talent," Sato said of Medeiros, who gave up one run in the third inning and surrendered five hits in a complete game. "He goes up there and competes every single time he's on the bump and we're fortunate to have him on our team and he did a hell of a job tonight. I'm very, very proud of him."

Medeiros, who stands 6 feet, 1 inch and weights 195 pounds, is projected to be an early-round selection in June's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft. At least 15 scouts were in attendance Friday to watch him in action.

"The adrenaline was there, we played good under pressure and we just never gave up until we came back," Medeiros said. "We came back, executed and it was a good win."

The senior southpaw outdueled Hilo's Jalen Carvalho, who gave up two unearned runs on four hits with six strikeouts and four walks in six innings pitched.

"Their pitcher did a great job," Sato said of Carvalho. "He mixed up his speeds and he hit spots and we've got to do a little bit better job of executing when we're on offense, but the kids found ways to win tonight and that's all we can ask for."

Carvalho gave the Vikings a 1-0 lead in the third inning on his two-out RBI single to right center that scored Jodd Carter from second.

The Warriors had a chance to answer in the bottom of the fourth, but courtesy runner Garrick Yokoe, Jr. was doubled off second by Carter, who fired to shortstop Micah Kaaukai after catching a lined shot off the bat of Medeiros in centerfield. Caleb Freitas-Fields hit a two-out infield single and Nathan Minami reached on an error, but Carvalho got Ryder Oshiro to fly out to Kaaukai at shortstop for the third out.

Waiakea got on the board one inning later on a pair of runs by Matt Camacho and Gerig Octacio. Camacho, the right fielder, hit a bloop single to short left and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Trevor Shimokusu. Octavio then drew a five-pitch walk before Aburamen hit a hard ground ball up the middle that Kaaukai couldn't handle and was consequently misplayed by Carter in centerfield. Camacho and Octavio both scored on the play to put the Warriors ahead, 2-1.

"We're just taking a lot of pitches, looking for our pitch, but the one mistake we made was we took too many fastballs," said Camacho, the Waiakea right fielder. "We had tough at-bats, but we battled through it and pulled it out."

The Vikings loaded the bases in the top of the sixth, thanks in part to two hit batsmen, but Medeiros struck out Noah Higa-Gonsalves to get out of the jam.

"I just told myself to take a breath, relax, throw those strikes, hit my spots and just play the game," Medeiros said.

Hilo coach Tony DeSa was livid at the end of the inning. Higa-Gonsalves was hit by the 0-2 pitch from Medeiros, but only after he swung and missed. DeSa argued his case with both the home plate and base umpire, but to no avail.

Medeiros sealed the deal by retiring the side in order in the top of the seventh.

"Our feeling right now is indescribable," Camacho said. "We beat our rival team, we worked hard every single practice till this day and we pulled through. We made no errors today — which is a first — so that's a big step and our bats pulled through."

Carvalho also led the Vikings at the plate, going 2 for 3 from his cleanup spot.

The game was a rematch of last year's league title game, which Hilo won in 11 innings, 8-5. The Vikings reached the semifinal round of the Division I state tournament last year before losing to Mililani, 8-6. After winning the state title in 2012, Waiakea lost in the quarterfinal round to eventual-champion Mid-Pacific, 5-1, in last year's tourney.

Hilo completes the regular season Wednesday against Pahoa, while the Waiakea wraps up with games against Pahoa and Konawaena next week.

The regular-season winner claims an automatic berth into the state tournament. The winner of the four-team Division-I playoffs will also punch its ticket to states.

"Confidence-wise, this is really big for us," Medeiros said. "We know that we took care of Hilo and we've just got to get better and better and just stay as a team and play hard."



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


IMAGE GALLERY



MORE STORIES

Castle takes down Kaiser in four sets to keep pace in OIA East

Cody Pili-Rumusod had nine kills and a game-high 35 assists to pace the Knights, winners of four straight...

Radford wins on walk-off wild pitch to turn back Kalaheo

Mataio Tauanuu batted 4-for-4 and scored the game-winning run in back-and-forth game for the Rams.

Punahou continues unbeaten streak, hands Kamehameha second straight loss

Third-ranked Warriors suffered consecutive losses in the regular season for the first time since 2017.

No. 4 Iolani rallies to hand No. 1 Kamehameha first ILH loss

Ethan Akagi and CJ Taira scored the winning runs for the Raiders off a wild pitch to hand the top-ranked...

Punahou pulls away from PAC-5 to notch first ILH win

The Buffanblu ended a five-game skid and broke into the win column to keep the Wolfpack winless in the...

Kalani's Nishigaya headlines All-OIA East selections

Forward/midfielder Kaiulani Nishigaya helped lift Falcons to first-ever league title; Kaiser's Noelani...