Hawaiian Electric Game of the Week
Trojans hold off Surfriders for OIA D1 title


Kalani Takase | ScoringLive
April 21, 2018, 10:13pm

  


Sat, Apr 21, 2018 @ [ 6:00 pm ]

Mililani

5

Kailua

4

FINAL 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Mililani 4 100000552
Kailua 0 1 10200451

W: Charles Winchester    L: Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo    SV: Cole Mayeshiro

KAIL: Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo 1-3 run rbi dbl; Ryan Inouye 5.3 IP 0 ER 3 K
MIL: Noah Domogsac 1-3 run 4 rbi HR; Charles Winchester 3.6 IP 2 ER 2 K


MANOA — Mililani parlayed a night of fun and games into its first league baseball title in 21 seasons.

Noah Domogsac hit a first inning inside-the-park grand slam and unranked Mililani held off No. 7 Kailua, 5-4, in the title game of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I baseball tournament at Les Murakami Stadium Saturday night.

The Trojans, seeded third out of the Western Division, won their sixth straight game — including their fourth tournament game in as many days — to improve to 12-4 and lay claim to their first league crown since 1997 and just second overall.

The East top-seeded Surfriders fell to 12-3 and saw their six-game win streak snapped. They were seeking their third consecutive OIA title and 15th overall.

"We've been ringing the bell for a couple years now and we finally got a chance to finish it out and just give credit to these guys that battled and stayed in it. They bought into what we're selling and stayed within ourselves and fought off a ferocious Kailua team," Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said.

It was Mililani's first trip to the league final since 2015, when it lost to Campbell.

"It feels good. We haven't won for like 21 years and it just feels great to give it back to coach Mark," said Domogsac, a senior designated hitter.

Although the Surfriders were the ones making their third straight championship game appearance, it was evident early on that the Trojans were at ease on the big stage.

During pre-game each of the Mililani starters gave a thumbs-up to the television cameras as they were introduced. When Hirayama's turn came up he followed suit, drawing a loud cheer from his players and the team's fans.

"That got us fired up because he's not like that and it was surprising," Domogsac said.

Hirayama said it was a matter of keeping his team loose.

"This last couple weeks or so we just kind of changed the mentality in terms of, ‘hey, you know what, we cannot worry about playing to fail. We've got to just go out and play to win and take the pressure off of us and just keep pushing and keep pushing and again, a lot of it is baseball is a game and you've gotta have fun,'" Hirayama said.

The move paid off for Trojans in the form of a one-out, first-inning rally.

John Richard Suehisa singled and Korrey Siracusa and Micah Kaohu drew back-to-back walks to load the bases for Domogsac.

After taking the first two pitches from Kailua starter Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo for balls, Domogsac lined a base hit into center field. The ball scooted past the center fielder, who made a diving attempt to catch the ball, which allowed all three base runners — and Domogsac — to score on the play.

"I wanted to bring up the next person. I was just looking for a fastball down the middle or outside and he gave me one off of two balls and I just swung and I just took it," Domogsac said of his first grand slam. "First I was thinking (third), but then coach Mark was waving me to go home and I was like, ‘Oh no.'"

The Trojans added a run an inning later when Micah Kaohu drew a bases-loaded walk to push across Shea Yamaguchi, but they left the bases loaded.

Kailua got on the board in the bottom of the second inning and cut the deficit to three runs on Cody Riturban's RBI-single to score Bryson Ballesteros in the third.

The Surfriders left two runners in scoring position in the bottom half of the third inning and failed to capitalize on another golden opportunity in the fourth, when they loaded the bases with a two-out rally only for the Trojans to escape with a gem of a defensive play. Matthew Kaleiohi hit a chopper to the right of second base. The ball was fielded by Suehisa, who raced to second base and dove for the bag just in time to beat the base runner for the third out.

However, Kailua got two-out RBI hits from Kurahashi-Choy Foo and Stone Parker in the bottom of the fifth to pull within 5-4.

The Surfriders got the tying run to third base in both the sixth and seventh innings but could not cash in either time.

"We fell behind early, but we battled back. They put up four runs in the first inning and we still were able to come back and make the game close at the end and I'l take our chances with those guys batting in the last inning any time of the week," Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said.

Charles Winchester allowed two runs on two hits in 3 2/3 innings of work to get the win. He walked four batters and struck out two before giving way to Ryan Ancheta, who threw two-thirds of an inning. Cole Mayeshiro got the final eight outs to earn the save.

"We've been pitching by committee all year so it kind of helped us in this tournament," Hirayama said. "We were able to kind of just figure out who's going to get the job done and keep throwing the guys in there, but any given day anybody can beat anybody, so you've just got to go out and play the game."

Mayeshiro, the staff ace, was coming off an 84-pitch outing in Wednesday's win over Roosevelt. He surrendered one run on three hits Saturday.

"No fatigue at all," Mayeshiro said. "All the adrenaline was pumping through me. It was different but anything for this team. This team, they're my brothers. They put it all on the line for me."

Siracusa said he was confident Mayeshiro would get the job done.

"I call him the ‘Cole-ser,' because his name is Cole and he's kind of the quote, closer, so it's kind of fitting that in this kind of game he came up big for us and he closed it out," Siracusa said.

Kailua used two pitchers in the game. Starter Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo lasted just 1 2/3 innings and gave up five runs on three hits with four walks and three strikeouts and was saddled with the loss.

Ryan Inouye surrendered just two hits in 5 1/3 scoreless innings of relief. He walked five and struck out three.

Mililani will have a seeded berth and first-round bye in next month's Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Championships.


Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




Show your support

Every contribution, no matter the size, will help ScoringLive continue its mission to provide the best and most comprehensive coverage of high school sports in the state of Hawaii and beyond.

Please consider making a contribution today.

ADVERTISEMENT


IMAGE GALLERY


MORE STORIES

Mililani's Vail, Patterson headline All-Hawaii Boys Soccer selections

Seniors Skyler Vail and Parker Patterson named Offensive and Defensive Players of the Year, respectively.

Punahou sweeps All-Hawaii Girls Soccer top honors

Carly Cormack repeats as Offensive Player of the Year; Laulea Ah Mook Sang named Defensive POY.

Marauders blank Golden Hawks to keep playoff hopes alive

Waipahu tallied 11 hits at the plate and saw pitchers Reysen Benigno and Kawika Mendoza combine on a...

Seariders pour it on in rout of Hurricanes to close out OIA D2 regular season

Kyson Rosa collected three hits, including a pair of doubles, and Shysten Nagasako threw a two-hitter...

No. 3 Kamehameha pulls away from No. 2 Iolani in ILH regular season finale

Kainoa Wade led the way with 32 kills to help the Warriors in four sets spoil the Raiders’ senior night...

Punahou stays hot, douses third ranked Maryknoll in home finale

Buffanblu put on a power hitting clinic against the Spartans, with Taryn Ho accounting for three of the...