HANAPEPE — It was a game with attitude, one befitting the match for all the marbles. It was such a good game both head coaches agreed it was too bad someone had to lose. Someone did, and it was a heartbreaking
HANAPEPE — It was a game with attitude, one befitting the match for all the marbles.
It was such a good game both head coaches agreed it was too bad someone had to lose.
Someone did, and it was a heartbreaking loss for Head Coach Michael Rita and his six Waimea High seniors, who played in their last high school baseball game.
Kaua‘i High scored two earned runs on two hits and an error in the top of the first inning, and survived a pair of potential Waimea rallies, prevailing 2-1 before a crowd of around 500 people in and around Hanapepe Stadium Wednesday.
The Raiders clinched the Kaua‘i Interscholastic Federation championship and the sole berth the league gets in next month’s Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association state tournament, in Honolulu.
Dustin Prem, one of nine Raider seniors, kicked off the game with a single against starter and losing pitcher Andrew Ouderkirk, and fellow senior Kaylen Wakumoto followed with a triple, scoring Prem. Jordan Leanio, another Raider senior, followed with a ball to Waimea shortstop Kalani Fernandez, whose error allowed Wakumoto to score.
Jensen Koga pitched five innings, giving up one run on five hits, picking up the win, striking out seven and walking two. He was relieved by Leanio in the bottom of the sixth inning, leaving runners on the corners with none out.
Leanio enticed Gavin Jardin into a 4-6-3 double play, Dalton Brun scoring on the play running for Michael Acoba, who started the Waimea sixth walking on four straight Koga pitches. Paul Correa followed Acoba with a hit to center, moving Brun to third. The inning ended with a line shot off the bat of Kailen Malama, speared in the air by Leanio, who energetically spiked the ball, a move that wasn’t missed by the Waimea players and coaches.
Later, in the top of the seventh inning, when Rysan Sakamoto followed his hit to center by getting thrown out by Dillon Ishihara at second base while trying to steal, some Waimea bravado was on display, as long looks from the Waimea infielders ensued as Sakamoto made his way to the visitors’ dugout in the middle of the inning.
That was after Leanio hit a one-hop shot back up the middle that was handled by Christopher Ka‘iakapu for the 1-3 force.
Ouderkirk, Steven Werner and Ka‘iakapu combined to limit Kaua‘i High to five hits. They were helped by a double play of their own, on a hit and run play where the ball was hit up the middle, with Micah Rita near the bag to cover for the running Raider, Travis Koga.
The ball hit off Rita, bounded to Fernandez, who made the play to Acoba at first, with Travis Koga not stopping at second and out by several feet at third on the throw from Acoba to Robert Perreira, a 4-6-3-5 double play if you’re scoring at home.
With two outs, the Raiders managed to load the bases, with Jensen Koga walking, Lanan Rice-Kashima following with a single to center, Taran Tani walking, and Prem grounding to Rita, who tossed to Acoba for the final out.
Waimea mounted a final threat in the bottom of the seventh inning, when Ishihara, who was two for three with a stolen base, with one out socked a double down the left-field line, then stole third.
Fernandez walked after working Leanio to a full count, after pinch hitter Shylen Keuma flew out to center, then Perreira flew to Sakamoto for the game’s final out.
The Raiders ended with two runs on five hits and no errors, and Waimea had one run on six hits and two errors.
Acoba, Jardin and Isaa Horner had the other Waimea hits, while Prem, Sakamoto, Wakumoto, Leanio and Rice-Kashima had the Raider hits, with Prem and Wakumoto scoring the Raider runs.
“It was a good game. Both sides played well,” said Raider Head Coach Hank Ibia, who had nothing but praise for Waimea’s six seniors and the Menehune coaching staff.
“After what they went through all year long,” including losing friend and starting second baseman Max Agor in a car accident during spring break, “the leadership of Michael Acoba” was a difference-maker, Ibia said. “Acoba did a helluva job leading them. Michael Rita did a helluva job getting them to where they were.”
He also talked about the nine Raider seniors: Wakumoto, Trent Allianic, Sakamoto, Dayne Murata, Christian Largo, Egan Kouchi, Leanio, Prem and Markus Oketani. “In the second round, they started working as a team,” Leanio, Prem and Largo each filling important leadership roles, Ibia said.
Largo, who played minimally, was huge on the bench, his personality important for keeping the mood loose on the bench, “keeping people relaxed,” Ibia said.
Leanio and Prem led both offensively and defensively on the field, he added.
Waimea returns the nucleus of a very good team next year, with just six graduating: Acoba, Horner, Malama, Ka‘iakapu, Ouderkirk and Perreira, and Rita had only good things to say about his seniors: “They’re great. They will be great men in the future,” and many of them should be able to play baseball at the college level, Rita said.
“Good ball players, good athletes, good leaders. They’ll be better men” for what they experienced during their senior season, he added.
“It was a very exciting game. We made some errors,” and the Raiders capitalized on them, said Rita, crediting his squad for “keeping their spirit up to the last out.
“We gave the fans a good show.”
He also had praise for the Raiders: “They’re a great team and a great coaching staff. Congratulations to them.”
On the Raider side of the field, parents were filling out order forms for KIF champion T-shirts, while on the Waimea side several players, coaches and families tried to console players who were crying after the gut-wrenching loss.
Paul C. Curtis, sports writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com
