Oahu topped the Kaua’i All Stars 10-4 in the 67th Hawaii State AJA Baseball Championships at Vidinha Stadium on Sunday. The last time Kaua’i won an AJA championships was in 1982, when Ray Emura won the MVP trophy and Mel
Oahu topped the Kaua’i All Stars 10-4 in the 67th Hawaii State AJA Baseball Championships at Vidinha Stadium on Sunday.
The last time Kaua’i won an AJA championships was in 1982, when Ray Emura won the MVP trophy and Mel Yamase was the RBI Champ.
Oahu started pounding in the second.
Oahu’s Nohili Naumu scored on a fielder’s choice, Gary Nakano drilled a basehit to score Dean Hashimoto, and Walt Grilho reached home on Layne Ishigo’s fly to take a 3-0 lead over Kaua’i after two.
Nakano hit a clutch base-hit to drive in Jason Takamoto and Hashimoto in the third to give Oahu a 5-0 cushion. The visiting team scored four more runs in the fourth: Takamoto muscled his fourth double of the tourney to dive in Derek Tenn, and two time MVP Hashimoto nailed a hit up the middle to score Ishigo and Takamoto and now Oahu was up 9-0 heading to the fifth inning.
Kaua’i finally broke through (in terms of scoring) at the bottom of the sixth inning.
Finally able to penetrate Oahu pitcher Danny Kimura’s slow ball pitching, Troy Kaneshiro and Kaina McCallum notched consecutive hits to get into scoring position. Kaneshiro then scored Kaua’i’s first run on an error: Kaua’i was down 10-1 after six.
Kaua’i saw more light in the ninth.
Dereck Lincoln scored Kaua’i’s second run. Kaneshiro cranked his second hit of the day, driving in two runs as “Zoomie Bukoski” and Mikey Cardinez scored on Kaneshiro’s RBI basehit. That would round out Kaua’i’s four-run, runner-up performance.
In earlier games, Hawaii topped Maui 11-3 for the consellation bracket win. To get to the championship game, pitcher Kaina McCallum pitched a complete game, allowing two runs on four hits and striking out nine batters to lead Kaua’i to a 7-2 win over Maui. Dereck Lincoln went 3-4 with three RBI’s; Liko Pereira went 2-3 with one scored run and two stolen bases; Wendall Nonaka went 1-3 with two runs; Tyrus Matsumoto rapped a sinlge and scored two runs; Troy Kaneshiro stole two bases.
Oahu beat the Big Island 8-5 to move on to the championship game.
This was a great tournament: Mahalo to the Kaua’i AJA Association, supporters, fans and friends, and also the umpires, and the groundskeepers for Hanapepe and Vidinha’s excellent fields. Thank you.
*Wrap-up and awards for the Kaua’i AJA’s regular season will appear in Friday’s Garden Island Sports edition.
