OIA Baseball
No. 5 Campbell wins pitchers' duel vs. Waipahu


  



Mon, Mar 13, 2017 @ [ 3:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Waipahu 0 000000041
Campbell 0 1 0000X151

W: Markus Ramos    L: Gabe Ballesteros    SV: Darien Robinson

CAMP: Nicholas Sampson 1-2 rbi trp; Markus Ramos 6.0 IP 0 ER 8 K
WAIP: Rayson Carriaga 2-3; Gabe Ballesteros 6.0 IP 1 ER 2 K


EWA BEACH - Markus Ramos and Darien Robinson pitched into and out of jams and combined on a four-hitter to lead No. 5 Campbell over visiting Waipahu, 1-0, Tuesday.

The Sabers (5-0) increased their lead in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I Western Division by two games over second-place Aiea (3-2), which beat Kapolei, 10-1, Tuesday. Both games, as well as Mililani's 11-5 win against Leilehua, were make ups from last week's postponements by rain. Waipahu (3-3) dropped to third.

Nicholas Sampson's RBI triple in the top of the second inning scored Justin Fernandez from first for the sole run of the game off of hard-luck losing pitcher Gabe Ballesteros (1-1), who pitched out of a bases-loaded and two runners on second and third jams in the game. He went the distance, allowing a run, five hits and five walks with two strikeouts. He threw 90 pitches.

Ramos (3-0) pitched six innings, scattering two hits and two walks, while striking out a season-high eight.

Robinson gave up back-to-back singles to start the seventh, but got Jayden Borja to pop out to second. After a wild pitch moved the go-ahead run to second, Robinson fielded a comebacker off the bat of Cole Phillips, freezing the runners, and throwing him out at first. Robinson threw three successive called strikes to Josh Lee to end the threat and earn his first save.

"After the last few outings, we struggled to throw strikes," Campbell coach Rory Pico said. "We threw a lot of strikes today, more than one (type of) pitch for strikes and that's important. They were able to make big pitches in big situations. I'm happy for our pitchers. They worked hard. They did the job today."

Ramos, mixing his pitches well, took a no-hitter into the fifth, when Rayson Cariaga lined a single just over the leaping and outstreched glove of shortstop Ikaika Ganancial to start the inning. But Cariaga was caught stealing on a nice throw by catcher Todd Takahama. 

Ramos got into trouble in the sixth when Jaron Sugimoto beat out a single to short and took second on Ganancial's throwing error on the play. After Sugimoto reached third on a ground to second, Ramos walked Khaine Viliamu to put runners at the corners and bringing up clean-up hitter Kobie Russell, who struck out on a 2-2 curveball.

"Kobie's a great fastball hitter," Ramos said. "He's seen me three times and was able to catch up to my fastball, so coach knew to keep him off-balance he wasn't going to touch any of my junk. Great hitter, though, Kobie's a great hitter."

After 94 pitches, Ramos gave way to Robinson to start the top of the seventh. Cariaga got his second single of the game to lead off the frame and took second when Steven De Silva lined a single off the top of the glove of third baseman Justin Fernandez. Robinson, though, got Borja to pop out to shortstop. But Robinson's 1-1 pitch to Cole Phillips bounced in the dirt and skipped over catcher Takahama's left shoulder to put the tying and go-ahead runners in scoring position and forcing the Sabers to draw in their infield. But Phillips hit a bouncer back to Robinson, who looked the runner at third back and threw out the batter for the second out. Robinson then displayed his repetoire on three pitches to end the game.

"First pitch was curve, second was changeup and the last one was fastball," Robinson said.

"It came down to offensively executing," Waipahu interim coach Milton Takenaka said. "We didn't execute offensively. We got the runners in scoring position. We just couldn't bring them in. (Campbell) had chances, too. Defensively, I thought we played a hell of a defensive game."

The main reason the game was nail biter was Ballesteros was getting into and out of jams himself. The Sabers squandered opportunites to cushion their lead, but left eight runners stranded, seven in scoring position.

In the third, Shane Shimizu led off with a double and took third on Ganancial's bunt single. Ganancial took second on a pitch in the dirt to put runners on second and third with no out. With the infield drawn in, No. 3 hitter Takahama popped out to second. With the infield still in, Ramos grounded out to short, freezing the runners, and Roy Clemons-Diaz grounded out to third to kill the threat.

The Sabers also left runners at second and third with two out in the first and left the bases loaded in the sixth when pinch hitter Jamin Kalaola popped out to first.

"He's been pitching well," Takenaka said of his left-handed starting pitcher. "We just have to give him some support."

Ramos' curve and slider were working best. Pico had a cap of 90 pitches for Ramos, but exceeded by four.

"He went a few over," Pico said. "He was still throwing strikes and he was still competing, so we felt he could finish that inning, even though he had a couple guys in scoring position."

The new pitch-count limit in a game is 110 pitches. Pitchers may exceed that if they are in mid-count to a batter before having to be pulled.

The Sabers travel to Mililani for a Wednesday game, while the Marauders have a bye.



Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at [email protected].




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