HHSAA Softball
No. 2 Pearl City pulls into D1 semis with 6-1 win over Lahainaluna


  



Thu, May 4, 2017 @ [ 12:00 pm ]


FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Pearl City 0 0060006103
Lahainaluna 1 0 00000140

W: Tyanna Kaaialii    L: Taylor Asio

LAH: Nohili Hong 1-3 run rbi HR; Taylor Asio 7.0 IP 6 ER 5 K
PC: Darian Obara 2-2 run rbi 2 dbl; Tyanna Kaaialii 7.0 IP 1 ER 6 K


MANOA — One inning made all the difference for Pearl City Thursday afternoon.

The second-ranked Chargers sent 12 batters to the plate and scored all of their runs in the fourth inning to rally to a 6-1 win over third-seeded Lahainaluna in the quarterfinals of the DataHouse/HHSAA Division I Softball State Championships.

A small crowd of about 150 at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium saw Pearl City (13-3) erase an early deficit to turn back the Lunas (12-3) to advance to Friday's semifinal round.

The Chargers posted six hits and were aided by four walks in the top of the fourth.

Darian Obara led off the frame with a double and scored the tying run on Hailey-Alexis Yamaguchi's single one batter later. Pearl City loaded the bases with three straight singles and Bryanna Passi drew a full-count walk to push across Tyanna Kaaialii.

Two pitches later the Chargers plated two more runs with Taylor Shigeta's double to right-center that scored Noel Saunders and Cheyne Obara to stretch their lead to 4-1.

Passi and Shigeta eventually came home on bases-loaded walks by Darian Obara and Yamaguchi, respectively.

"Nothing was different," Shigeta said of the Pearl City fourth. "We just went up there, we did our jobs as batters, got on base and then cashed them in."

Lunas pitcher Taylor Asio receives encouragement from teammates in the midst of a tough fourth inning. Spencer Honda | SL    Purchase image

Chargers coach Chad Obara echoed the thoughts of his senior left fielder.

"I'm not really sure if there was any difference," he said. "It took us a while to figure out what she was throwing and we made little adjustments, but we were kind of touching her pretty good prior to that. It's just that everything got put together in that inning."

Lahainaluna pitcher Taylor Asio held Pearl City to a pair of base hits in the first three innings before struggling with her command in the fourth.

"It was just that one bad inning that (Pearl City) found their bats. They got some hits and our pitcher gave up some walks," Lunas coach Lei Nakamura said. "You kind of deflate a little bit when you're up 1-0 and you give up six runs in that one inning, but that was only one inning and we still had three more innings to come back. I think it was hard for us to pump some air back into our self-esteem to come out there and do what they needed to do, but all in all, I'm very proud of them."

Asio, a senior right-hander and fourth-year starter, went the distance and allowed 10 hits. She walked seven and struck five. All six of the runs she surrendered were earned.

"I'm proud of Taylor. She carried us," Nakamura said. "She's grown a lot and matured a lot and carried us this far.

One day after she tossed a four-hitter in Wednesday night's 6-1 first-round win over Kapolei, Kaaialii matched the effort Thursday. She scattered four hits, struck out six and walked two in the win.

"Today was a whole different situation," Obara said. "We were searching for something to throw accurately the whole game, so we had no choice but to pitch to contact because we were just searching all day. Today wasn't her best outing and I think she'll probably say the same thing."

Lahainaluna took an early lead on Nohili Wong's solo home run in the bottom of the first inning.

"I think that (Kaaialii) was great on the mound. She kept her composure a lot," Shigeta said. "Even though we're kind of down in that first inning off that home run, we came back. We kept our composure, we kept in mind that we still had a lot of game left and we just kept playing."

Darian Obara had a pair of doubles and drew a couple of walks and Noel Saunders went 2 for 4 for the Chargers, who had a quick turnaround time after Wednesday night's game against Kapolei ended after 9:30 p.m. First pitch for Thursday's contest was at 12:07 p.m.

"By the time I got home, it was almost 12 o'clock already, so for the girls, trying to get to bed, they gotta go shower and all of that, I thought it was pretty tough," Chad Obara said. "I would have liked a little more time, but we don't control that."

Pearl City will meet No. 3 Campbell at 4:30 p.m. Friday at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.

Lahainaluna, which won the Maui Interscholastic League and had a first-round bye Wednesday, will play the No. 4 Maryknoll at 2 p.m. Friday in a fifth-place semifinal at McKinley.

It was the fifth consecutive year that the Lunas lost to a team from the Western Division of the Oahu Interscholastic Association in either the first round or quarterfinals.



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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