The Rams and Governors will face off in a crucial OIA Division II game Saturday morning. ScoringLive photo illustration

Purchase image 1 of 1

For both the Farrington and Radford baseball teams, spring break meant a slight change of scenery.

The Governors and Rams returned from trips to the U.S. mainland last week to find themselves in an ever-tightening race atop the Oahu Interscholastic Association's Division II standings.

Farrington (6-1) traveled to Phoenix for a six-game slate against teams from across the country, while Radford (7-0) played a pair of games in Tacoma, Washington.

The teams will now face off twice in a span of a week, with the first meeting set for Saturday at the Rams' field.

"It was unreal. We had a real good experience," Govs coach Eric Tokunaga said. "It was good for us. We played better teams and while we didn't win any games, we were winning most of the games and we just collapsed. We had big innings and we couldn't bounce back. It was very similar to that Waianae game where we jumped ahead and couldn't hold the lead and we had the tying and go-ahead runs on base and just couldn't punch them over."

Tokunaga is referring to Wednesday's 9-7 loss at the Seariders — his team's lone defeat in league play this year.

Turning the page on that loss, however, will be key, he said.

"I think we're going to be OK. We're kind of focused in on moving forward," Tokunaga said. "The one thing I like about baseball — and people don't realize how fast the game is — but every pitch is like a new play, so we just told them we just gotta keep moving forward and we gotta get ready for Radford."

Tokunaga is banking on the game experience gathered in Arizona to pay dividends down the line.

"I know that we're going to play with more confidence. In that sense, that's the one positive thing, but I feel like we weren't overmatched at any time, so that was good," Tokunaga said. "We played pretty good actually. I would say out of twenty-eight innings, we probably played twenty-three, twenty-four good innings — we only had three or four bad innings — but we didn't score enough runs. We left a lot of runners on base where we could have probably gone ahead, but we just never came through with the big hits."

Radford's trip to the Pacific Northwest provided its own type of adversity.

"We had to play in thirty-degree weather in the rain, but it was fun to see them play in that and kind of pull through that," Rams coach Jacob Sur said.

In addition to the two exhibition games, the team also toured several schools, including the University of Washington, Seattle University, Pacific Lutheran and Puget Sound.

"One of our alumni is up there and we kind of set it up, but mainly we wanted to go up there and have the kids look at some potential (colleges)," Sur said. "A couple of our guys haven't been off the island, so I think it was a good experience for them."

The Rams enter the weekend in sole possession of first place in the league standings as the lone remaining unbeaten. Sur pointed to his starting pitcher as the main reason for his team's success this year.

"This is probably the first year that we're deeper in pitching. In past years we probably had one or one-and-a-half guys, but this year we've got three solid, quality starters, so we've been using a three-man rotation," Sur said.

Senior Jack Dillon (2-0, 1.14 ERA) is the ace of the staff, but junior Richard Akana (3-0, 1.19) and freshman Tommy Tereschuck (2-0, 0.64) have also been lights out.

Dillon will get the starting nod Saturday, which Tokunaga said will make for tough sledding for his team.

"It's not going to be easy because we're anticipating that we're going to be facing Jack and he's tough," Tokunaga said. "He's probably a Division I-caliber type of guy. He pounds the strike zone, he's got good command of all his pitches, so we'll be in for a battle, but hopefully we'll be competitive."

It's not just the pitching that worries Tokunaga about the Rams, who are averaging better than 11 runs scored per game.

"They're tough. I mean, they play tough defense, they battle at the plate, they're tough outs, so all around they're just a good, solid, well-coached team that you cannot make too many mistakes against," Tokunaga said. "We just gotta play our game and hopefully we play the way we're capable of playing."

Sandwiched between the two games against Farrington, Radford also has a mid-week date against Waianae (6-1) at Hans L'Orange Park. Sur, however, cautioned that his squad can't afford to look ahead to Wednesday's showdown against the Seariders just yet.

"Farrington is going to be tough," Sur said. "They're definitely changing the script of what you think of Farrington. They are not a team that you can look past on the schedule anymore. They'll probably have to move up to Division I next year and they'll challenge teams, I'm sure. Tokunaga is doing a great job with them."

The Governors are expected to go with either senior Trey Kaawa (2-0, 3.66 ERA) or junior Treven Isobe (3-1, 2.83) as their starting pitcher.

First pitch is scheduled for 11 a.m. at the Rams' field. The teams will rematch next Saturday at DeSa Field.