HANAPEPE — Aaron Soong had two home runs, Rysan Sakamoto had one, Jonathan Gebauer had a grand slam, and Trent Allianic struck out six straight batters. Somewhere in that excitement, Kaua‘i High School clinched the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation title with
HANAPEPE — Aaron Soong had two home runs, Rysan Sakamoto had one, Jonathan Gebauer had a grand slam, and Trent Allianic struck out six straight batters.
Somewhere in that excitement, Kaua‘i High School clinched the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation title with an 11-1 contest in Game 1, and followed that with a 5-1 edge in Game 2.
Jordan Buster picked up his third win of the season in Game 1, holding the Menehune to just one run on five hits while whiffing six batters and walking three.
Andrew Ouderkirk was handed his first loss after three wins when Sakamoto and Soong banged home runs, each one coming in with extra runs because of a runner on base, off the starter in the the first and second innings.
When he was relieved by Kelly Batis, Ouderkirk had given up six runs on five hits while striking out one and walking three.
Batis went on to give up five runs on six hits with six strikeouts and three walks.
Soong topped the Kaua‘i bats in Game 1, going 3-for-5 with 3 RBI and scoring three times. Sakamoto, 3-for-4 in the box, scored twice and also notched 3 RBIs in Game 1.
But Soong was not through yet, as he came up with another hit in Game 2, joining Gebauer who broke a 1-1 tie in the sixth inning with a grand slam.
“Joel (Pahukula) and I were talking, and none of us can ever remember a KIF game where there were four homeruns in a double-header, let alone a grand slam,” said Glenn Mickens, the KIF scorekeeper and arbitrator.
Allianic picked up the win for Kaua‘i on the mound in Game 2, notching 10 strikeouts, including six straight between the end of the third and two-thirds into the fifth inning.
“He also put 89 mph on my gun today,” Mickens said. “That’s the fastest anyone in the league has thrown all season.”
In the win, Allianic gave up one hit (the Menehune run was unearned) and walked one before Andrew Renaud closed the game.
Steven Werner suffered the loss for Waimea, giving up five runs on six Raider hits.
Waimea closes the season on Wednesday when they travel to the Ron Martin field for a final game against Kapa‘a starting at 2:45 p.m.
