OIA Baseball
Trojans bust out the bats to run-rule Surfriders, reach title game


  



Fri, Apr 22, 2022 @ [ 7:00 pm ]


F/5TH 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R H E
Kailua 0 1011XX341
Mililani 0 1 273XX13130

W: Randyn Rios    L: Rayvin Pagan

MIL: Brayden Suehisa 3-3 2 runs 2 rbi trp; Randyn Rios 5.0 IP 3 ER 5 K
KAIL: Makai Miyamoto 1-1 run; Rayvin Pagan 3.0 IP 4 ER 4 K


WAIPAHU — The bats are hot for the Mililani Trojans. 

Brayden Suehisa and Kaleb Pongasi recorded three hits apiece to lead the Mililani hit parade in a 13-3 win over Kailua in the semifinals of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I baseball tournament Friday night. 

A crowd of about 350 spectators at Hans L'Orange Park saw the eighth-ranked Trojans rap out a baker's dozen worth of base hits and extend their winning streak to nine games. The game was called with one out in the bottom of the fifth inning due to the 10-run differential mercy rule. 

Mililani, the No. 8 team in the ScoringLive/Hawaiian Electric Power Rankings, will play No. 10 Pearl City Saturday at 7 p.m. for the OIA championship. 

"Any time you get in this position, it's great," said Trojans coach Mark Hirayama, whose team has won the last two Division I league crowns (2019 and 2018) and will be seeking a third in four years. 

"It's all the work that the boys put in and for them to be successful and get some success, it's great," Hirayama said. "We try to tell them, too, that it's just another ballgame — the game is not gonna change just because it's a championship or not — and we just gotta go out and continue to do what we do and play a complete ball game."

On Friday night, the Trojans matched the season-high 13 runs they scored in a win over Campbell just seven days prior. They have scored 11-or-more runs in four of their last five contests. 

Randyn Rios overcame some difficulties on the mound to turn in a four-hitter with five strikeouts and three walks. The left-handed senior retired 15 of the 23 batters he faced, but his balk in the top of the second inning allowed Makai Miyamoto to score the game's first run and put Kailua ahead by a run. 

After Rios was called for the balk by the home plate umpire, he was visibly frustrated. Rios hunched over with both of his hands over his head for several seconds after Miyamoto crossed the plate. 

"Yeah, Randyn pitches with a lot of emotion," Hirayama affirmed. 

"He's come a long way, he's grown up a lot and every time he goes out there he puts his heart on the line for the team, for the program, for his teammates, but he's just gotta understand that he's not gonna be perfect in this game and he's got eight guys behind him that are gonna help him out, so he doesn't have to do it all himself," Hirayama added. 

But Rios got all the run support he needed and then some. 

Suehisa led off the bottom of the second with a triple to the gap in left center off of a hanging curveball from Surfriders' starting pitcher Ravin Pagan. Pagan struck out the next two batters, but Bryce Nuha looped a single into short center to bring in the tying run in Suehisa. 

"(Nuha) just put some contact on that ball to drive me in, so it was pretty good," Suehisa said. 

Mililani took the lead for good with Zen Staszkow's RBI-sacrifice fly in the bottom of the third. Two batters later, Suehisa made it a 3-0 lead with his two-out RBI-single to center; he fouled off a fastball on the outside half of the plate one pitch prior. 

"Then he gave me a slider, so I just sat back and ripped that thing up the middle," Suehisa described. 

Kailua cut it to a one-run game after Orion Medeiros led off the top of the fourth by drawing a walk off of Rios. He eventually scored on a wild pitch by Rios. 

 But the Trojans broke the game open with a seven-spot in the bottom half of the frame. Three of their four hits in the inning were run-scoring singles, including BJ Tokushima's two-out, two-run hit. All three of the walks they worked in the fourth came around to score. 

"We had the mindset and our coaches told us to stay on top of the ball — no pop flys, just making contact, moving over runners — we don't need big hits, just move our runners," said Suehisa, who batted 3 for 3 with a walk and two runs scored. 

The sophomore clean-up batter and third baseman raised his batting average to .429 in the win. He has reached base safely in eight of the nine games he has appeared in. 

"Brayden's been on fire from the JV season," Hirayama said. "He's only a sophomore but he comes up here and every at-bat he attacks pitches and he's not afraid to go out and swing the bat, so we like that aggressiveness from him and he's got a good eye; He's not afraid to get behind in the count and still put the ball in play, so I'm looking for big things from him."

Suehisa missed his team's final two games of the regular season due to a hand injury, but returned in time to play in Thursday's quarterfinal-round win over Kaiser. 

"I just came back from breaking my pink, so I'm glad to be back. It just feels good out here, just being out here and being back with the boys," Suehisa said. 

Kailua plated another run off of a Rios' wild pitch in the top of the fifth, but Mililani was unrelenting with the stick and pushed across three more runs off of four hits in the bottom of the fifth. Pongasi's RBI-single brought Tanner Aoki in to score. Two batters later, Ethan Murakoshi drove in another run with his RBI-sacrifice fly and two batters after him, Tokushima finished things off with an RBI-single to score Pongasi and induce the mercy rule. 

"It was a great team win, from the pitching — from Randyn — to the defense, to the hitting," Hirayama said. "The guys are kind of finally putting it all together and playing a complete ball game, so this is what we worked for."

Mikey Hinano batted 2 for 3 in the loss for Kailua, the No. 2 seed out of the Eastern Division. 

The Surfriders will play East top-seeded Kalani for third place at 11 a.m. Saturday. 

The championship game will feature the top two teams out of the West in Mililani and Pearl City, who split their two regular-season meetings this year. Each game was decided by a single run: Pearl City won the first time, 2-1, back on March 19 and Mililani rallied to an 11-10 victory in the rematch on Apr. 8 

"It's gonna be fun, they always compete," Hirayama said of the Chargers (10-2). "It's a good rivalry and everybody gets up for that. It's gonna be a matter of who makes the least mistakes and it'll be fun."

The D1 final will follow the D2 title game between Waianae (10-4) and Nanakuli (12-1) at 4 p.m. Both games will be played at Hans L'Orange Park. 



Reach Kalani Takase at [email protected].




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