OIA Baseball
No. 8 Kailua topples No. 1 Pearl City, 9-3


  



Fri, Apr 22, 2016 @ [ 6:30 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Kailua 0 002007981
Pearl City 0 0 10110367

W: Dalton Kalama    L: Trenton Darley

PC: Davin Kapuras 2-3 2 rbi; Carson Okada 3.0 IP 0 ER 2 K
KAIL: Kila Thomas 3-4 2 runs rbi; Keiki Kanahele-Santos 3.0 IP 1 ER 3 K


WAIPAHU — For six innings Friday night, Kailua was engaged in a well-played, back-and-forth semifinal against an undefeated and top-ranked Pearl City team.

And then everything changed.

The eighth-ranked Surfriders sent 10 batters to the plate in the top of the seventh inning and scored seven runs on just one hit, aided by six errors by the Chargers in the frame en route to a 9-3 semifinal win at Hans L'Orange Park.

"We just got lucky in that inning," Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. "Some breaks went our way."

The Surfriders extended their winning streak to nine games to improve to 11-3 and advanced into Saturday's Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I championship game and will face eighth-ranked Kalani, which it finished second to in the regular season. That game will follow the Division II final between Kalaheo and Kapolei at 3:30 p.m.

The Chargers fell to 13-1.

Kailua, meanwhile, will be try for its first league crown since 2012 and 13th overall. It will be playing in the OIA final for the first time since 2014, when it lost to Campbell.

"It feels good," said catcher Kila Thomas, who batted 3 for 4. "We made it (to the OIA championship) my sophomore year, we didn't win, but now it's redemption. It's our time."

Kailua took a 2-1 lead on Matt Hanano's pinch-hit, two-run single in the top of the fourth inning, but saw Pearl City tie in the fifth on a Davin Kapuras sacrifice fly and pull ahead in the sixth when Chase Yoshida scored from second on Matt Aribal's two-out bloop single.

Trenton Darley, the Chargers' third pitcher of the night, began the top of the seventh — his third inning of work — by allowing back-to-back walks to Dustin Imanaka and Dalton Kalama. Noah Auld then loaded the bases with a single to rightfield. Lawson Faria then reached on an error that allowed Imanaka to score the tying run before Kalama was gunned down trying to score for the first out.

Joey Cantillo was intentionally walked by Darley to again load the bases. Keiki Kanahele-Santos hit into a fielder's choice for the second out as Auld came in to score the go-ahead run on the play.

That's when things unraveled for the Chargers.

The next three batters — Thomas, Matt Hanano and Kalei Kealoha-Machado — all reached base on errors. The Surfriders scored five more runs in the inning — four coming home on errors and another on a wild pitch — before Darley got Imanaka to strikeout for the third out.

"We expected Kailua to be as good as they were tonight and up until that top of the seventh we had the game, we had the opportunity to close it out," Pearl City coach Gavin Concepcion said. "What happened was we let the emotion of the game and the situation get too big and take control of us, which got us two walks and those errors. It's tough to lose in that situation especially against a team like Kailua, where you give them all those opportunities and they're going to capitalize on it and that's what they did."

In the first six innings of the game, the Surfriders left seven runners on base. They got at least one man aboard in five of the first six frames, but failed to capitalize outside of Hanano's two-RBI single.

"We just had a lot of confidence," said Thomas, who singled up the middle in each of his first three at-bats. "We trusted our preparation and we knew we could pull it off."

Kalama got the win after pitching the final two innings. He allowed one run on one hit with three strikeouts and three walks. Keiki Kanahele-Santos lasted three innings before giving way to Hanano, who threw two innings.

Pearl City starter Carson Okada had a batted ball ricochet off the side of his face that led to the third out in the top of the third inning. He fell to the dirt before being attended to by a school athletic trainer, but was able to walk off under his own power. Concepcion said Okada did not return as a precautionary measure.

"Carson is OK, (but) with that type of injury we just wanted to make sure that everything was clear so that's why we took him out of the game," Concepcion said. "Our trainer ran him through the protocol that we have. So far he's checking out and everything looks good, so he's fine."

Okada had thrown just 37 pitches through three scoreless innings with a pair of strikeouts.

"Obviously we had to make an adjustment there a little earlier than we wanted," said Concepcion, who turned to Trestan Nakamura for an inning of relief. "(Nakamura) gave up a couple of runs, but was able to get us out of the inning to get us to Darley and keep us in the game and, you know ultimately, Darley pitched well up until that top of the seventh and we put ourselves in a position to win a ball game and we just didn't do it."

Darley was charged with the loss. He was three and struck out two. Only one of the seven runs he allowed were earned.

The West top-seeded Chargers will host Waipahu for third place at 1 p.m. Saturday.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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