Na Menehune take down Golden Hawks in playoff opener

Greg Yamamoto | SL

Survive and advance.

Moanalua rallied for two runs in the fourth and another pair in the fifth to get past Nanakuli, 4-1, in the opening round of the OIA Division playoffs.

Kaiden Sonoda-Fukumoto led off the inning number four with a single, and came around to score the tying run a batter later on Connor Dempsey's triple to center. Na Menehune took the lead when Nate Alvaro connected for a line drive double that brought home Dempsey, part of four straight base hits in the inning.

Then in the fifth, two insurance runs came home courtesy of a Sonoda-Fukumoto single and a Dempsey base hit to make it 4-0 after five innings of play, and from there Brandon Deth did the rest, holding Nanakuli hitless over the final two innings, capped off by a game-ending double play.

Na Menehune batters one through five accounted for 9 of the 10 hits and all four runs, with 2 for 3 days at the plate for both Sonoda-Fukumoto and Dempsey, as well as Rayden Miguel.

Deth allowed ten hits in the contest but just one run, which came in the opening inning, where the Golden Hawks collected three base hits and scored their lone run in the game on a Dallas Alapai single.

Alapai was 3 for 3 in the game. Jordan Kay, Isaiah Enriquez and Blaze Baltazar each collected two hits on the afternoon to pace the Golden Hawks. Baltazar also had a double, the lone extra base hit for the visiting team in the contest.

Donald Kapaku went six innings for Nanakuli in the loss, allowing four runs on 10 hits, walking one and striking out four.

Nanakuli's season ends at 5-8, while Moanalua will travel to Wahiawa to take on West second seed Leilehua in the quarterfinals.