KAPA‘A — The Waimea Menehune, sporting “Max 7” black armbands, hit two homeruns en route to a 13-7 edge over Kapa‘a, Wednesday evening at the New Kapa‘a Town Park. The Menehune jumped out to an explosive start, building a 6-0
KAPA‘A — The Waimea Menehune, sporting “Max 7” black armbands, hit two homeruns en route to a 13-7 edge over Kapa‘a, Wednesday evening at the New Kapa‘a Town Park.
The Menehune jumped out to an explosive start, building a 6-0 lead in two innings including a solo in-the-park home run by Ona Defabian, her first of the season.
But Kapa‘a, bolstered by a strong home crowd, answered in the bottom of the second inning with four runs with two outs.
Waimea pushed two more runs in the third frame only to have the Warrior wahine give the fans their money’s worth with three runs coming in the bottom of the inning for an 8-7 deficit.
Shelly Koerte, Waimea’s hurler, stiffened and allowed just one more hit for the remainder of the game as the Menehune scattered five more runs through the remaining four innings.
Menehune secondbase Krysta Kali had the hot bat for Waimea, finishing 4-5 and scoring three times, including a two-run homer in the seventh inning with one out. Kali finished with three stolen bases and five RBI in the outing.
Ona Defabian hit her first home run, a solo in-the-park to deep leftfield in the second inning to build the Menehune to a 6-0 lead. She went on to finish 3-5 with a double and triple in addition to round trip shot, scoring three times and getting three RBI.
Catcher Tauina Tafiti (2-4) scored twice, marked two stolen bases and had two RBI.
Koerte (1-4) also marked two stolen bases and had two RBI.
Hilary Leosilagi, Prestian Fejeder and Reggie McCabe each scored twice for Kapa‘a. Leosilagi got aboard on a Waimea error three times at bat, Fejeder got first on a bunt single, McCabe had a pair of bunts and a single.
Le’Rae Hoopii got aboard on a bunt and scored on a Leeana Baltazar RBI double in the second inning.
Baltazar finished 2-4 with a single and a double and Ta’ashi Napolean singled to round out the Warrior hitting.
Koerte picked up the win on the mound with seven runs and five hits while striking out six, walking two and hitting two batters.
Melina Obar suffered the loss with 13 runs on 14 hits with two strikeouts and just one walk.
With the win, Waimea hosts Kaua‘i High School in a double-header, starting at 10 a.m. on Saturday at the Waimea Canyon Park.
