LIHU‘E – The Pony Baseball playoffs move to the Kalawai Park, Wednesday afternoon after Koloa blanked the Hanama‘ulu Boys, 2-0, Sunday at Vidinha Stadium. The outcome of the Wednesday encounter will set the stage for the championship game that will
LIHU‘E – The Pony Baseball playoffs move to the Kalawai Park, Wednesday afternoon after Koloa blanked the Hanama‘ulu Boys, 2-0, Sunday at Vidinha Stadium.
The outcome of the Wednesday encounter will set the stage for the championship game that will take place, Sunday, June 26 at Vidinha Stadium.
Counting on the pitching performance of Jordan Buster, the Hanama‘ulu threat was matched by an equally hard-throwing Trent Allianic who threw a one-hitter in five innings and getting help from Braden Balocan in closing.
Buster opened strong, striking out the first three Koloa batters in order, and adding another “K” in the second frame, but tired when morning showers held up the game.
Leading into the fourth frame, Buster had already held Koloa to just two hits and had chalked up five strikeouts with no walks allowed.
When play resumed, Buster issued his first walk to Marcus Oketani in the fifth inning that proved costly as a pickoff attempt resulted in an errant Hanama’ulu throw that scored Oketani for the first score on a Ricky Davenport single to rightfield.
Kapena Thomas-Place popped a high infield fly that dropped him on firstbase, stealing second, and scoring on a Buster wild pitch.
In his five innings on the hill, Allianic came up with five strikeouts, gave up a walk, and didn’t yield a Hanama‘ulu hit until the fourth frame when the rains halted play in his one-hit stint.
Balocan finished by yielding a hit in the sixth inning, but coming back strong to close by striking out the final two Hanama‘ulu batters.
Game time Wednesday is 4:30 p.m. when Koloa travels to Kalawai where the winner of that Wednesday playoff contest will square off against Lihu‘e, Sunday for the championship at Vidinha Stadium.
