HANAPEPE — With two outs and chasing one run, West Kaua‘i’s Kaila Lanning singled followed by Nicholas Salas and Brock Efphan walking to load the bases in the seventh inning, yesterday afternoon. But the next West Kaua‘i Bronco all-star went
HANAPEPE — With two outs and chasing one run, West Kaua‘i’s Kaila Lanning singled followed by Nicholas Salas and Brock Efphan walking to load the bases in the seventh inning, yesterday afternoon.
But the next West Kaua‘i Bronco all-star went out with a strike-out to dash the orangeshirts’ hopes as Maui wrapped up a 7-6 victory to advance in the State Bronco Championships in Hanapepe.
Earlier in the day, Maui took an 8-6 edge in 10 innings over Aiea to meet up with West Kaua‘i.
Aiea, playing Mililani A following its loss to Maui, succumbed to the undefeated team 7-1, but stays alive in the tournament.
Aiea will meet Maui starting at 10 a.m. at the Hanapepe Stadium. The winner of that game will go up against Mililani A starting at 1 p.m.
If Mililani A, successful over West Kaua‘i 11-3 yesterday morning, wins the afternoon game, it will secure the State Bronco Championship.
A Mililani A loss will force another game tomorrow for the championship.
Troy Kakugawa picked up the win for Mililani A in its win over Aiea with Jimmy Madrid coming in for the save.
In his three-inning stint, Kakugawa allowed one run on four hits and walked two.
D.J. Dureg, coming up with a 2-RBI single in the fifth inning against Aiea, finished 1-3 with 3 RBI followed by Rayson Romero (3-4) with an RBI. First baseman Kody Yamada (2-3) and Trent Sitar (2-4) also chalked up RBI against Aiea.
Against West Kaua‘i, Sean Milan picked up the win behind five strikeouts in three innings.
Romero (4-5) with two doubles and three RBIs paced the Mililani bats in that win. Yamada (2-5) fiished with 2 RBIs along with Madrid. Milan (2-4) and J.C. DeJesus (4-5) each drove a run home. Academia and Justin Ushio finished with a triple and double, respectively.
Isaac Burrows had a homerun in the seventh inning to lead Maui to a two-run frame and the win over West Kaua‘i in its second outing.
West Kaua‘i had a 4-1 lead after four innings of play, but Maui answered with four runs on three hits in the fifth inning to take the lead.
That was answered by two runs from West Kaua‘i until the see-saw swayed to Maui’s favor in the seventh frame when the brownshirts piled up two runs on four hits.
Maui had a 2-0 lead going into the third inning before Aiea came alive with 6 runs on 3 hits in that frame only to have Maui answer with a run in the third.
With runs coming in the fourth, fifth and sixth inning, Maui tied the contest 6-6 when Chaze Ishikawa scored after singling with no outs.
The deadlock remained until Maui pushed Aaron Victorino and Akemi Arriaga across the plate in extra innings for the win.
The state Bronco Championships is being hosted by the West Kaua‘i Youth Baseball Association and the public is invited to view the games at no charge at Hanapepe Stadium.
