OIA Baseball
Tabura drives Na Menehune over Cougars, 7-4


  



Wed, Mar 29, 2017 @ [ 3:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 R H E
Kaiser 0 0040000485
Moanalua 2 0 001103770

W: Tyler Nakata    L: Tyler Dyball

MOA: Randy Tabura 1-4 2 runs 3 rbi HR; Tyler Nakata 3.0 IP 0 ER 2 K
KAIS: Landon Shigeta 1-3 run rbi trp; Steven Miyata 5.0 IP 1 ER


SALT LAKE — It took an extra inning of baseball, but it was the Na Menehune who outlasted the Kaiser Cougars in a D1 Oahu Interscholastic Association East division matchup Wednesday afternoon at Moanalua High School.

With two runners on in the bottom of the eighth, Moanalua senior Randy Tabura blasted a shot over the right field fence for a three-run walk-off homerun to drive the Menes to a 7-4 win.

"I saw fastball inside-low and that's my pitch," Tabura said of his approach at the plate with a 2-0 count in his last at-bat. "Coach told me to ‘easy up' and that just means to stroke the ball and that's what I did and it went over the fence."

With the win, Na Menehune improves to 6-3 and remains third in the OIA East standings behind Kailua (8-2) and Kalani (7-2). The Cougars drop even to 5-5 in league play and remain at No. 4.

Moanalua coach Scott Yamada told his team it would be a "move week" in the standings.

"Just like in golf, Friday-Saturday is the move day," Yamada said, referring to the leaderboards of a four-day golf tournament. "Today's game and Saturday's game is moving up the chart or moving down the chart. We got to move up."

Today's win moves them in the right direction as they prepare for a matchup against Kalani on Saturday.

But it was a tough battle to come out with the victory. The biggest difference in the game was Kaiser's five errors on defense amounting to three unearned runs.

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In the bottom of the first inning, Cody Isa reached base with a lead-off walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt.

Batting in the No. 3 spot, Tabura hit a grounder to Cougars' second baseman Landon Shigeta but it passed under and shot to the outfield. The throw home was misplayed by catcher Kainoa Torres and wound up at the backstop, allowing Isa to score.

Later in the inning, first baseman Antonio Omphroy fielded a groundball but made an errant throw to second base in an attempt for the double play, allowing Tabura to slide home safely.

Five innings later and Tyler Dyball came in for relief of Kaiser starting pitcher Steven Miyata. Dyball induced two quick outs, but free bases to the next two batters and another fielding error by Shigeta allowed a run to score.

"That's been our strongest suit so far: our pitching and defense," Kaiser coach Kila Kaaihue said. "Our defense just let us down today. We made too many errors and that's how they scored pretty much all their runs."

The Cougars started the season 0-3, and much like they've been able to respond with five wins in six games, they also responded against the Na Menehune.

Before playing hero at the plate, Tabura — proclaimed "The Face of Moanalua Baseball" by his teammates — started the game on the rubber for Moanalua and put out four innings of near-flawless pitching, but the top of the fourth was his biggest hiccup.

Keoni Pangan got it started with a single to left centerfield, then Kainoa Craig took an 0-2 count and stretched it out for a walk.

 

Moanalua's Randy Tabura hits a walkoff 3-run Home Run in the 8th to defeat Kaiser 7-4. #SupportHighSchoolSports

A post shared by ScoringLive (@scoringlive) on Mar 29, 2017 at 8:55pm PDT


Two batters later and Torres got the job done of what's asked for in a cleanup hitter. A double to deep right centerfield brought both runners home to tie the game, 2-2.

Shigeta followed by taking the next pitch for a blooped triple to drive in another run. Pinch hitter Jace Okamoto later singled to put the Cougars up 4-2.

"Kaiser is a really good two-strike hitting team and I knew that coming in," Taburo said. "They come up clutch when runners are on base. I just need to locate my pitches better."

Moanalua cut into the deficit with Andrew Oasay's lead-off shot over the grand left field fence in the bottom of the fifth inning. Kamuela Labasan notched the game-tying run in the sixth inning on Shigeta's second error.

In the top of the eighth, Kaiser had a chance to take the lead with bases loaded on two outs, but they returned empty.

Na Menehune centerfielder Kaz Tachino led the bottom frame with a single, and Labasan ate a pitch with his body to get on base. That's when Tabura clutched up to seal the victory.

"It's just experience. Battling back when we were down and being in those situations, they're turning into great baseball players," Kaaihue said of the Cougars' loss in what he called a great game. "When we begin the playoffs, every game is going to be like that. We're going to play everybody's best."



Reach Spencer Honda at [email protected].




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