It took eight innings, but Aaron Adachi and the Red Raider baseball team made their last at bat count, as the Kaua‘i catcher roped an RBI game- winning single, scoring Kirby Yates for the 4-3 first round victory of the
It took eight innings, but Aaron Adachi and the Red Raider baseball team made their last at bat count, as the Kaua‘i catcher roped an RBI game- winning single, scoring Kirby Yates for the 4-3 first round victory of the HHSAA/Wally Yonamine Foundation Baseball State Championship.
Kaua‘i’s Stanton Yoshimori picked up the victory, but Yates worked seven tough innings, allowing just three earned runs and striking out nine in his longest outing of the season.
Pearl City, who ousted the Red Raiders in last season’s state tournament, got good pitching from Craig Calantoc and Matthew Ko.
At the plate, the Red Raiders relied upon the big bat of Adachi, who drove home one of the four runs and collected three hits and one run.
Kaua‘i secondbaseman Andrew Renaud came up big with two of the four Red Raider runs and Shannon Oketani drove in a run and played strong out in centerfield.
In the Kaua‘i eighth inning, Yates got on base with a walk and Yoshimori moved him over to second base.
After a Russell McCluskey intentional walk, Adachi came up to the batter’s box and singled to rightfield, as Yates turned on the jets and scored from second base for the winning win. Up next for Kaua‘i is the number one team in the state, Punahou, who won last year’s state championship. Today’s quarter-final contest starts at 4:30 p.m. and will be broadcasted on Kaua‘i’s KONG (AM 570).
