OIA Baseball
Five-run sixth inning carries Trojans past Hurricanes


  



Wed, Feb 22, 2017 @ [ 3:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Kapolei 0 010000134
Mililani 1 0 0005X621

W: Cole Mayeshiro    L: Garrett Wong

MIL: Noah Domogsac 0-2 2 runs rbi; Cole Mayeshiro 6.0 IP 1 ER
KAP: Landon Kuroda 1-3 run; Garrett Wong 5.6 IP 0 ER 3 K


MILILANI — Cole Mayeshiro tossed six innings of three-hit ball and host Mililani used a big sixth inning en route to a 6-1 win over Kapolei in both team's regular-season opener Wednesday afternoon.

The Trojans (1-0) sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth to turn back the Hurricanes (0-1).

Mayeshiro, a junior right-hander, allowed just two Kapolei batters to reach third base. He gave up one run, walked three and struck out one.

"He's been our most consistent guy in the preseason. Today, he did a good job and kept them off-balance a little bit," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said of Mayeshiro, who registered first-pitch strikes to just 11 of the 23 hitters he faced and threw 47 of his 82 pitches for strikes.

"I think he threw a lot of pitches and he kind of gets behind the hitters a little bit — fortunately it's with two outs and nobody on — but we've been talking about trying to be a little more efficient, especially with the pitch count this year," Hirayama said. "We've got to get ahead and stay ahead. Sometimes, I don't know if it's the two-out lull and he kind of relaxes a little bit, but he's got to try to be a little more consistent to work to get ahead of batters."

The Trojans gave Mayeshiro a one-run cushion early on. Leadoff hitter Noah Domogsac was hit by a 2-2 pitch by Kapolei starting pitcher Kamea Wong and was allowed to score on an Isaac Badua throwing error in the bottom of the first inning.

The Hurricanes got their leadoff man aboard in the top of the third, when No. 8 hitter Landon Kuroda lined a single into left field on the first pitch he saw from Mayeshiro. Courtesy runner Nate Solis plated the tying run three batters later on Bradyn Yoshida's groundout to the right side.

Mayeshiro got a lift from his batterymate in the fourth inning. Kapolei got two runners on base in the frame, but both were caught stealing and gunned down by Mililani catcher Thomas Nakatsukasa.

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"Thomas helped me real good. He helped me get out of some of the innings," Mayeshiro said.

The score remained tied at 1 until the bottom of the sixth, when Wong was ultimately chased from the game after loading the bases with two outs. He gave way to Yoshida, who struggled in his 1/3 inning of work. Yoshida faced six batters. He walked three, hit one batter gave up one hit before striking out the final batter.

Kapolei coach Tom Ebanez acknowledged that it was a tough spot to take the mound for Yoshida, who just came off of a long boys' soccer season.

"It was, but we told them at the beginning of the day that it's all about competing," Ebanez said. "He went up there and he did his best and gave his all-out effort and we cannot say nothing more about that. It happens in baseball. Hats off to the guy, he competed today."

Wong was charged with the loss. He allowed four runs on one hit in 5 2/3 innings pitched. He walked three and struck out three. Wong threw 61 of his 109 pitches for strikes.

"He was around the plate for the most part, (but) I think the same as our guy, he just lost it here and there," Hirayama said of Wong, a second team All-Hawaii pitcher as a junior last season.

Mililani managed just two hits, but benefitted from six walks issued by Kapolei pitchers and four errors.

"I want our guys to be a little more aggressive at the plate and swing the bat early in the count, when they get pitches to handle," Hirayama said. "We look at good pitches and then we swing at bad pitches, so we've got to turn that around and just be better offensively on our side and if we can do that, we'll be okay."

Domogsac scored twice and had an RBI. Clean-up hitter Taylor Inouye (1 for 4), designated hitter Korey Siracusa (1 for 3, walk) and No. 5 hitter Thomas Nakatsukasa (2 walks) each drove in a run.

Anthony Ano threw a scoreless top of the seventh for Mililani.

It was Kapolei's first Division I game in more than two seasons. It won the Oahu Interscholastic Association D2 title and reached the state final last season.

"I feel that my boys, we belong here and we've been wanting to be here since last year and right now the challenge for the boys is, ‘we wanted to be here now let's compete to show everyone that we belong here,' so we're taking it game by game and with each practice they're competing to get better," Ebanez said.

The Trojans were bounced from the OIA D1 tournament in the quarterfinals last year, but still managed to make their fourth consecutive trip to the state semifinals. However, with the graduation of 17 seniors from last year's team, it's almost an entirely brand-new lineup this season.

"One through nine graduated, so everybody was new out there," Hirayama said. "I just told the guys that nothing is set yet. I think there's still a better combination out there and we're just going to kind of keep moving guys around and figure out how we can compete at our best with what we throw out there, so I just challenged the guys to keep working hard and make it tough on me to figure out a lineup and help us compete."

Both teams return to the diamond Saturday. Kapolei will host Pearl City at 11 a.m. while Mililani will take on Aiea (0-1) at 3:30 p.m. at Patsy T. Mink/Central Oahu Regional Park.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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