ILH Baseball
Saint Louis rallies to beat Kamehameha, 2-1


  



Fri, Feb 24, 2017 @ [ 4:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Kamehameha 1 000000140
Saint Louis 0 0 0002X240

W: Chase Meilleur    L: Hunter Breault

STL: Daniel Stephens 1-2 run trp; Chase Meilleur 7.0 IP 1 ER 4 K
KSK: Nakea Hanohano 2-3 run rbi trp HR; Hunter Breault 5.3 IP 2 ER 5 K


WAIPAHU - Saint Louis rallied for two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to squeeze by Kamehameha, 2-1, Friday in an Interscholastic League of Honolulu Division I season opener at Hans L'Orange Park.

Matthew Wong's flare single over shortstop tied the game at 1 and he later scored the go-ahead run on Kaloiohia Perreira-Alquiza's single in the top of the sixth.

The Crusaders' Chase Meilleur pitched a complete game win in a pitchers' duel with Kamehameha ace Hunter Breault in a battle of right-handers.

Meilleur got into a hole early when Nakea Hanohano lined a two-out solo home run over the left-field fence in the top of the first inning. Meilleur (1-0), who ironically struck out the side in the first, scattered four hits, walked one and struck out only one after the first.

"That was a mistake pitch and props to him for capitalizing on it,' Meilleur said of Hanohano's homer. "He capitalized on all my mistake pitches and that's just something good hitters do."

Breault (0-1) nursed a 1-0 lead through five innings, allowing a single to Keith Torres to start the game. He also hit Stephens with a pitch and eventually found himself with a first-and-third jam with one out. But he escaped the inning unscathed and continued to blank the Crusaders until the sixth. He pitched 5 1/3 innings and was charged with two runs, four hits and a walk with five strikeouts. The Oregon signee and pro prospect was clocked between 88 and 94 mph, according to one scout.

"Hunter pitched a great game, take nothing away," Saint Louis coach George Gusman said. "We tried to make him pitch, but he kept pounding the strike zone. That's what we needed to do, just hang around and get lucky."

The Warriors had opportunities to cushion Breault's lead. In the third, they had runners at the corners with two out on back-to-back singles by Kawaiola Takemura and Logan Salcedo. Meilleur's first pitch to Hanohano hit the dirt and skidded just behind catcher Perreira-Alquiza, who did not have to go far to retrieve the ball and toss it to Meilleur, who tagged out Takemura to end the inning.

In the fourth, Hanohano led off with a triple to right-center field. With the infield drawn in, Meilleur got Micah Kinoshita to pop out to second, retired Breault on shallow fly to right and battled Dylan Salcedo in an eight-pitch at-bat by getting him to fly out to left to douse the threat.

"We didn't help ourselves," Kamehameha coach Tommy Perkins said. "I think we hit one ball down; everything else was up."

Added Meilleur: "Getting out of it, you just have to rely on your team. You have to know your team is making the plays behind you and not try to do it all yourself."

Meilleur holding down the Warriors finally paid off for him in the bottom of the sixth. Stephens drilled a first-pitch fastball from Breault to the left-center alley.

"I was just looking to get on and trust the guys after me," Stephens said.

The Crusaders pretty much were looking at Takemura to make the catch. But since he had his back to the infield, even if he made the catch, it would have been a difficult play to make at the plate.

"At first Coach (Gusman) told me to tag and I said, ‘He's right there (close to the infield). So why am I going back? If it drops I can score.' Once I saw that it dropped, I scored."

The outs were running low on the Crusaders and they had to gamble on the play.

‘We were going to take some chances at that point," Gusman said. "We were ready to play extra innings if we needed to…We had pitchers. We just had to find some way to tie the game."

With the infield pulled in, Breault jammed Wong, who hit a pop to the left side of the infield. Takemura, stationed at the edge of the infield grass, turned his back to home plate in pursuit of the pop. A brisk breeze did not help him either as the ball dropped over his out-stretched glove, allowing Stephens to score to tie the game at 1.

"He was going back, but it was a little deeper than he expected and the wind was carrying (the ball farther)," Perkins said. "Even that deep hit to left-center (Stephens' triple), that's another one we couldn't get to."

After Wong took second on Dylan Pagent's sacrifice, Perreira-Alquiza's ground single to left drove in the go-ahead run to chase Breault. Jace Borja came in to get the final two outs.

Meilleur retired the side in order in the top of the seventh to end the game.



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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