Menehunes sweep Warriors in doubleheader KAUMAKANI — The Waimea Menehunes pushed closer to clinching the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation softball title by sweeping the Kapa’a Warriors — 5-0 and 5-1 — Saturday at the Kaumakani Neighborhood Center field. The Menehunes’ magic
Menehunes sweep Warriors in doubleheader
KAUMAKANI — The Waimea Menehunes
pushed closer to clinching the Kaua’i Interscholastic Federation softball title
by sweeping the Kapa’a Warriors — 5-0 and 5-1 — Saturday at the Kaumakani
Neighborhood Center field.
The Menehunes’ magic number is one. Any Waimea
win or any loss by the Kaua’i High Red Raiders would give the Westsiders the
championship.
On Wednesday, the Menehunes visit the Red Raiders at Isenberg
Field at 2:45 p.m.
The Warriors (now 4-6 overall and 1-3 in the second
round) are out of the running for the championship.
Waimea is 9-1 overall
and 4-1 in the second round.
Kaua’i High (1-8 overall, 1-2 in the second
round) needs three straight wins to tie up the Menehunes for second round
honors.
Waimea 5, Kapa’a 0
Albette Nawai hurled a one-hitter and the
Menehune offense scored early and often.
In the first inning, Waimea went
up 1-0 as Erin Castillo doubled and scored on Erica Iwai’s single.
The
score zoomed to 2-0 in the second frame when Bridget Louis beat out an infield
hit, took second on Breanne Baptista’s sacrifice, went to third on a wild
pitch, and scored on an error.
In the third, Waimea scored two more runs to
take command at 4-0. Robyn Hoopii-Manuel led off with a single and Erin
Castillo walked before Iwai slugged an RBI double. The other run came home on
Jennifer Fukino’s ground out.
Angel Kaohelaulii added Waimea’s final run of
the game in the fourth. She led off with an infield hit and eventually crossed
the plate on Hoopii-Manuel’s sacrifice.
Tiana Laranio, who had relief help
from Cherisse Labuguen, suffered the pitching loss.
Russlyn Morita’s first
inning single was Kapa’a’s only hit of the ballgame.
Waimea 5, Kapa’a
1
The Menehunes led by just one run — 2-1 — through four and a half
innings, and then finally pulled away with a run in the fifth and two more in
the sixth.
Nawai finished with a four-hitter to take her second pitching
win of the day.
Labuguen hurled for Kapa’a in the loss, and she ended with
a four-hitter too.
Waimea broke a scoreless tie in the third with a pair of
runs for a 2-0 lead. Kaohelaulii walked and scored later in the inning on a
wild pitch, while Shanelle DePeralta drew a base-on-balls and came around to
score on a passed ball.
The Warriors scored their only run of the afternoon
in the top of the fourth when Tiana Laranio’s basehit drove home Cassandra
Wong.
In the fifth, Baptista led off with a single for the Menehunes, and
she wound up scoring on a Kapa’a error for a 3-1 Waimea lead.
Fukino’s
single and RBI hits by Louis and Ashley Pimental keyed Waimea’s two-run sixth
inning for the final 5-1 score.
After Wednesday’s Kaua’i vs. Waimea game at
Isenberg Field, the KIF softball scene will shift to the Kapa’a Ball Park for a
1 p.m. season-ending doubleheader between the Warriors and the Red
Raiders.
