Aiea upends third-ranked Mililani, 2-0

Ty Matsunami threw a seven innings of shutout baseball to earn the win over third-ranked Mililani on Senior Day. CJ Caraang | SL

ALIAMANU—Ty Matsunami threw a complete-game three-hitter and Jarred Uyeda had a timely RBI double to help lift Aiea past third-ranked Mililani, 2-0 in an Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I West game at Radford's Donald M. Kimura Field on Saturday afternoon.

"I wanted to do it for the seniors and everyone who came out," said Matsunami, a sophomore pitcher. "I'd like to give a shout out to Jake (Nakamoto), he got out three people, that was big for us."

"It's special and we're really young and these seniors, we look up to them and it's fitting we can send them off with a win like this," said Aiea coach Ryan Kato.

The Na Alii improve to 4-6 in the standings and snapped a five-game losing streak on their Senior Day. Aiea, whose field is under renovations, will close out the regular season at Leilehua (2-7) and Waipahu (2-8). Mililani (9-2) closes the season out against Pearl City (10-0) at Hans L'Orange Park. The Trojans won the first meeting, 4-3 back on Mar. 26.

"It gives us momentum and belief and a sense we can accomplish good things at this level. Losing five in a row weighs on their confidence and getting a win energizes them. Hopefully it gets the ball rolling," said Kato.

Matsunami threw two strikes and walked two, but managed to keep the Trojan batters off balanced. According to Matsunami, the changeup was his go-to pitch that gave Mililani problems. He also added a run for the first score of the game.

"Ty stepped up big for us today. We had faith in him and he came up big," said Uyeda.

"We didn't make good adjustments and find a way to figure him out. We put the ball in play but didn't cut down on swings and too many easy outs," said Mililani coach Mark Hirayama.

"What we wanted Ty to do as a pitcher is what exactly what he did today. Being able to throw curve balls and changeups for strikes," said Kato, on Matsunami.

Kobe Kato went 1-for-3 with an RBI single and Uyeda went 1-for-2 to drive in another run. Logan Ho and Jake Nakamoto each added singles.

Aiea broke through a scoreless stalemate in the bottom of the third inning. Matsunami reached on error and moved to second off of Masaki Nobuhara's sacrifice bunt. Bronson Nekomoto grounded out to second. Facing two outs, Kato singled to third and beat the throw to first to score Matsunami. Uyeda doubled to center field to bring in Kato to build a 2-0 lead and never looked back.

"I was looking for something to drive. There were two outs already, I wanted to make solid contact, luckily it went over his head head and got the RBI on that one," said Uyeda, on the hit.

"Jarred is no stranger to that situation. He's that guy we want when we have a runner at second with two outs and we know he possesses that ability," said Kato, on Uyeda.

Millilani mustered three hits and could not get past second base all game. Blaine Demello, Ryan Kono and Thomas Nakasukasa each had singles for the Trojans.

"We hit some balls early at them and didn't execute after that. Ty did a good job and kept us off balance. They made plays and we didn't get that third out and Uyeda is one of their best hitters," said Hirayama.

Justin Ogasawara pitched six innings, striking out four, but allowed four hits and two runs — both unearned in the loss.

"We faced Justin the first time and he was spot on. Luckily we got to him early in the game," said Uyeda.

Reach Brandon Ching at [email protected].