Kalani edges Moanalua to create three-way tie atop OIA East standings

Greg Yamamoto | SL

It's anyone's race heading down the stretch of the OIA East regular season, as at the halfway mark, the top three teams in the division (Kaiser, Kalani, Moanalua) all hold 5-1 records, and all have beaten at least one of the other two.

Kalani rebounded from its first loss to Kaiser just two days earlier, getting a clutch eighth inning from Naomi Stremick at both the plate and the circle to squeeze out a 5-4 win over Moanalua.

Stremick led off the eighth inning with a line drive triple to center, and then came in to score the go-ahead run on Haley Ching's sacrifice fly.

After the side was retired, Stremick took to the circle, striking out the first two batters before walking the next and allowing a single that put the tying run on third. But unlike the last of the seventh, when Na Moanalua was able to parlay the near exact scenario, walk then single with two outs, into a tying run courtesy of a clutch RBI hit by Malia Taga, Stremick buckled down and forced Emily Tome into a game-ending grounder to back to the pitcher.

Stremick was just a single short of hitting for the cycle. She started off the scoring for Kalani with a double in the first inning, then added a two-run home run in the third to make it 3-1 in favor of the Falcons. She was 3 for 3 with two runs scored and three RBIs.

Moanalua plated runs in the second, fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but weren't able to get the bats going as they have previously this season, where its averaged 13.2 runs in each of the first five wins, including four in a row via mercy rule.