OIA Baseball
Eastlack fires three-hitter as Trojans cruise past Surfriders, 7-0


  



Fri, Apr 24, 2015 @ [ 3:30 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Mililani 2 000050780
Kailua 0 0 00000032

W: Koa Eastlack

KAIL: Cody Takabuki 1-2; Stone Parker 5.6 IP 6 ER 4 K
MIL: Aris-Shea Nakagawa 1-1 run 2 rbi dbl; Koa Eastlack 7.0 IP 0 ER 6 K


WAIPIO — There was no stopping Koa Eastlack Friday.

The junior southpaw pitched a complete-game three-hitter to lead Mililani to a 7-0 win over Kailua in the semifinal round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I baseball tournament before an afternoon crowd of about 100 fans at Patsy T. Mink/Central Oahu Regional Park.

The Trojans, who are ranked third in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings, improved to 12-2 on the year and advanced to Saturday's tournament final by avenging a semifinal loss to the Surfriders from a year ago.

Eastlack faced just three more batters than the minimum required and did not allow a base runner to reach third. After allowing a leadoff single in the bottom of the first, he retired 13 of the next 15 batters he faced, including a string of 10 straight. The 6-footer finished with six strikeouts against just one walk to improve to 5-1 on the year with a 1.27 earned-run average.

"I had everything working today," Eastlack said. "I knew that I could make them chase and get them out and the defense was definitely helping me. I knew they were working and I just had to trust them and they got the outs, just like I needed them to."

The Trojans played flawless defense behind Eastlack, who recorded six ground ball outs and five flyouts. Eastlack even initiated the lone double play for Mililani, which came after he allowed a leadoff single by Noah Auld in the fifth inning. On the very next pitch he threw, Eastlack fielded a Keiki Kanahele-Santos bunt before throwing to second to erase Auld on the force and Justice Nakagawa completed the twin killing by throwing to Ty De Sa at first in time to get Kanahele-Santos.

"That's what we preach, is to go up, throw some strikes and let us make some plays," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said. "Koa did a good job. He kept them off balanced and he was able to get ahead of batters. Getting the leadoff out was crucial, especially with a team like Kailua that is going to run and do some different things."

Eastlack threw just 83 pitches, 52 of them for strikes. He threw first-pitch strikes to 13 of the 24 batters he faced.

"He kept his pitch count down, too, so he was around the plate all day and that kind of helps with getting some of those borderline strikes if the umpire knows he's going to be there, so he did a great job," Hirayama said.

The Trojan bats gave Eastlack an early cushion to work with. Ryan Kono dropped a one-out bunt and beat out the throw to get on base. He moved over to third on Kaimana Souza-Paaluhi's single to right field and scored on Sean Sonognini's RBI single to left one batter later.

"I was pretty eager; I wanted to get that base hit," said Sonognini, who batted 2 for 4.

Souza-Paaluhi scored two pitches later when Ty De Sa grounded out to first to make it a 2-0 Mililani lead.

The score held until the top of the sixth, when the Trojans sent nine batters to the plate and scored five runs on five hits, ultimately chasing Kailua freshman starter Stone Parker, who lasted 5 2/3 innings and allowed six runs — all of them earned — on six hits.

De Sa plated Souza-Paaluhi with a one-out single to left to give Mililani a 3-0 lead. The Surfriders got the second out of the inning when Justice Nakagawa flied out to right fielder Matt Hanano. Blaine Demello, who was courtesy running for Sonognini, the catcher, bluffed tagging up from third, but Hanano's throw missed the cutoff man and catcher Dalton Kalama was unable to handle it, allowing Demello to score and De Sa to advance to second. Two batters later, pinch hitter Aris Nakagawa lined a double to left that brought in De Sa and Adam Connell to make it 7-0.

"Aris has been swinging the bat well in practice and he just kind of goes up there and kind of free swings," Hirayama said of the junior. "Especially with the pinch hitters, you're going to try get ahead and go right at them, so I told him to don't wait, just go get it and let things happens. He's been swinging well and hopefully he can continue that."

It was the second complete-game effort by a Mililani starting pitcher in as many days. Staff ace Micah Chinen tossed a four-hitter in a 6-0 quarterfinal win over Moanalua Thursday.

Consequently, Hirayama said he will staff Saturday's championship game with a number of relievers.

"We're not going to bring Micah or Koa back (Saturday), so we figure we'll just let them go and do what they can do as long as they can and as long as they're around the plate they're giving us a chance, but we'll figure out tomorrow tomorrow," Hirayama said.

Mililani, who finished second in the West, will play top-ranked Campbell in Saturday's 6:30 p.m. title game. The teams have split a pair of regular-season meetings this year. The West champion Sabers beat East runner-up Kaiser, 9-0, in Friday's late semifinal.

The Trojans are seeking just their second league crown in school history and the first since 1997. They will be making their first appearance in an OIA final since 2013, when they lost to Campbell by a score of 13-3.

Mililani lost to Kailua, 4-3, on a walk off hit by Dalton Kalama in last year's OIA semifinal round.

The East champion Surfriders (11-3), who are ranked sixth in the ScoringLive/OC16 Power Rankings, will host Kaiser in the late semifinal Friday night, in the third-place game at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Both teams have already qualified for the Wally Yonamine Foundation/Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division I State Tournament, which will be held at Les Murakami Stadium in two weeks.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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