Castle's Brylan Kaneshiro attempts a throw to first base against Moanalua. Kaneshiro pitched 1 and 1/3 inning of relief in the Knights' loss to Na Menehune. Michael Lasquero | SL

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After feeling the high of a hard-fought, back-and-forth win over rival and perennial power Kailua over the weekend, Castle was dealt with the low of a 14-0 blowout at the hands of Moanalua Monday.

So goes the game of baseball.

The Knights (2-2) swapped spots with Na Menehune (2-1) in the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Division I East standings and sit in third and fourth place, respectively, following Monday's one-sided affair.

Not a whole lot went right for Castle, which managed just two hits while allowing 14 by Moanalua, and committed four errors — two of them coming in a backbreaking 12-run bottom of the third inning for the hosts.

Although the score got out of hand, Knights' coach Rocky Fraticeli remained optimistic about his young squad.

Fraticelli praised Moanalua's lineup, which saw seven different players get a hit and as many drive in a run.

"It's not that we didn't show up; they banged the ball — big difference," Fraticelli said. "They whacked the ball. We tried to keep it as close as possible."

A total of four errors led to five of Moanalua's runs being unearned, which ironically was what Castle capitalized on Saturday against the Surfriders.

"The Kailua game our guys were focused at the beginning when they first walked on the field," Fraticelli said. "I didn't have to have them do anything as far as setting up the field, so I knew already, I had a gut feeling that our guys were pretty focused, but we took advantage of Kailua's mistakes — a lot of freebies."

Castle starting pitcher Keoki Gaspar-Takahashi struggled in his first outing of the regular season, lasting just 2 2/3 innings before he was pulled with Moanalua holding a 7-0 lead.

"I thought he did OK," Fraticelli said of the lefty. "I thought he did well, but for him he has to get ahead. His situation is that he gets behind, so 2-0 count, then he'll lose focus — I think he hit one guy today — but other than that he pitched 55 pitches today, so I'm pretty happy how he pitched. Much better than what he has done."

Gaspar-Takahashi, who has a near-sidearm delivery, was charged with nine runs (seven earned) on seven hits with three strikeouts against two walks.

"Is he one of our top pitchers? No. He has that awkward delivery, so we would rather use him as somewhat of a middle-relief or end-of-game situation, but we're short on pitching right now," said Fraticelli, who noted that Gaspar-Takahashi's last appearance was against Leilehua in a preseason game on Feb. 18, when he threw 28 pitches in two scoreless innings of relief.

Gaspar-Takahashi gave way to another lefty in Aidan Christiansen, who didn't fare much better. Christiansen was tagged for five more runs (two earned) on five hits, including Ryne Oshiro's bases-clearing triple, in a third of an inning.

Castle has struggled with several players on academic probation, which has had a residual effect on the rest of the roster.

"We've got three guys out on AP. We find out today if we get them back — two of them could be starters," Fraticelli said. "We lost one kid who decided to sit out this season with a shoulder issue and he's a junior and he would have been one of our pitchers, too, and we've got two freshmen."

There were a few bright spots for the Knights, however.

Brylan Kaneshiro, who started the game at third base, took over for Christiansen as the third Castle pitcher in the bottom of the third and ended the nightmare inning by striking out pinch hitter Kevin Hirokane to strand a base runner on first. Although Kaneshiro hit a batter in the fourth inning, he retired the side on just nine pitches and did not allow a base hit.

Also, second baseman Hunter Paredes got his first hit since Feb. 22 when he doubled off Moanalua starter Tyler Nakata to lead off the top of the third inning.

The Knights will have little time to rest as they visit Kaiser (1-3) Wednesday before hosting Roosevelt (1-2) Saturday.

"Well, we've got one day of practice and then we come back with Kaiser, so we'll see what happens," Fraticelli said.

Castle will get another crack at Moanalua on March 25 at Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park.