Tjader De Alba successfully steals second before Farrington second baseman can tag him out. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Jace Baguio slides home for a run in the sixth. Baguio also hit an RBI to bring teammate King Togia home for run prior in the sixth. Sylvia Lee | SL

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Winning pitcher Caleb Myers completed 3 no-hit innings and struck out 8 in a match against Farrington. Sylvia Lee | SL

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ALIAMANU – Despite coming out with a win, the Rams were not satisfied.

Radford jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after the first inning and never looked back, pulling away from Farrington, 7-2, at the Donald M. Kimura Field Saturday afternoon. The Rams improve to 3-1 in Oahu Interscholastic Association White Division play while the Governors drop to 2-2. 

Even though the Rams kept pace at the top of the league standings, Radford coach Jacob Sur thought the team could have done better.

“Sloppy, we didn’t play good. We had spurts here and there. We got a lot more improvement for us to where we want to be. For us, we want to pursue (bigger goals), we want to go past just getting into the OIA playoffs,” Sur said after the Rams’ postgame meeting. “Our goal from the beginning of the year is to get to states. We got to get better performances than this. 

“For me, that’s how I am. I’m very nitpicky. I don’t think we played very well – I mean we won, but we didn’t play well for the team we have.” 

On a lighter note, the Rams’ pitching unit of Caleb Myers, Kevin Klein and Nickolas Martinez produced a grand total of 17 strikeouts with seven walks.

“It was real helpful,” said Radford second basemen and leadoff hitter Ethan Harms. “(On) defense we didn’t have to do too much today. It was pretty helpful having all the strikeouts. We dint’ have to run around the whole field trying to (chase down) balls.”

Still, for a team with huge postseason aspirations, Sur was not to0 happy about the seven walks.

“Too many walks,” said Sur. “That’s a big thing. If we are in a closer game, tighter game, that’s going to hurt us.” 

Fortunately, the home team was able to score four runs early on, putting themselves in the drivers’ seat. Dominc Albalos, the third batter in the lineup, quickly made the score 2-0, bringing home Harms and Gavin Watabayashi. Following Albalos was Marc Tejada, who reached first base on a base on balls. This set up Jacob Nishitomi’s two-run ribby two batters later to make the score 4-0.

“Those four runs was a good push for us, that we got guys going in the right direction of what we needed to be doing to get the ‘W’,” Sur said on their four-run first inning. “It was real good. We should have felt off of it some more.”

Radford was able to hold on to their 4-0 lead with Myers’ eight strikeouts through three innings. In his final inning on the mound, Myer’s fanned three straight to finish with no hits and runs allowed. 

“I felt pretty good today,” said Myers. “Just a little nervous in the first inning, wasn’t pitching well. After that I was sort of in the groove.”

The Rams pushed their lead to six after plating two runs in the fourth inning. Nine-hitter Brett Morrow got the offense back into gear with a triple to centerfield. Harms was able to bring home Morrow batter later.  Watabayashi followed that up with a groundout that brought Harms home, making the score 6-0 in Radford’s favor. 

Radford another insurance run in the bottom of the fifth, after Morrow was walked while the bases were loaded. 

The Governors were able to score two runs in the top of the sixth to prevent the shutout. Farrington made things interesting in the seventh with a Jordan Sataraka triple, but was unable to atone for their early deficit.

“We won, (but) like I said, I know we can do way better than what we did,” said Sur. 

Radford hosts Waialua (3-1) next while Farrington takes on Kaimuki. Both games are slated for Mar. 26.