KAPA‘A — The Kawaihau Community Little League Majors All-Stars will face a hana hou this afternoon after a walk earned Kawaihau a 10-9 edge against the previously undefeated Kailua All-Stars, Tuesday. With bases loaded and no outs, Kawaihau’s Tyrus “Moose”
KAPA‘A — The Kawaihau Community Little League Majors All-Stars will face a hana hou this afternoon after a walk earned Kawaihau a 10-9 edge against the previously undefeated Kailua All-Stars, Tuesday.
With bases loaded and no outs, Kawaihau’s Tyrus “Moose” Kupihea, called on to close the game on the mound, stoically stood his ground in the batter’s box.
When ball four was called, Jake Rausch, the starting pitcher for Kawaihau trotted home to break the 9-9 stalemate for the win.
“It should be interesting tomorrow,” said Mikey Cardinez, coach of the Kawaihau Minors All-Stars, who came from behind to win the District 1 tournament on O‘ahu, earlier. “The aces will all be eligible to throw again and hopefully Kawaihau can continue to do what they’ve been doing and keep the game interesting.”
Cardinez, who took the Minors to the state tournament following the District 1 win, finished the season with Kawaihau ending in third place.
Kennison Nagahisa, the head coach for the Kawaihau Majors, earlier said how the team had good hitting and quickness in the field.
That came to pass when Kawaihau clawed back from an early 2-0 Kailua lead to tie the game when Zion Stihl, drawing first on a walk, scored on an RBI bunt off Johnny Levinthol in the second inning, Levinthol giving Kawaihau the 3-2 go-ahead on a Chaz Pacleb RBI. Pacleb was the winning pitcher of Monday’s game.
A Kawaihau run in the third and three runs in the fourth inning pulled the Kapa‘a boys to a 7-3 lead before Brett Watanabe’s grand slam in the fifth inning put Kailua up 8-7.
“We’ve been here before,” Kailua coach Jerry Bush told the Kailua players in a huddle heading into the fifth frame. “We came back to win from a six-run deficit. Four runs is what we can do in one inning. Let’s play some Kailua baseball.”
That’s when the fingernails started getting shorter as Kawaihau answered in the bottom of the frame when Levinthol marked his third home run of the tournament, a two-run shot that dropped over the fence in left field, pushing Austin Toloai, who had singled, ahead of him for the 9-8 lead, the ball bouncing off the access road and into the county baseyard.
As fans gripped the edges of the seats, Kailua catcher Lia Tom, getting encouraging “Tiger” remarks from her dugout, calmly slapped a solo home run to deep right-center field and getting a high-five off third base coach Bush on the way home to knot the contest 9-9.
With Kawaihau getting the final at-bat, Rausch opened the frame on a single that dribbled into center field. Garcia followed with an exciting bunt single and D.J. Lacaden walked to load the bases, setting the stage for Kupihea’s at-bat.
Kawaihau picked up the win on eight hits led by Levinthol’s RBI single and two-run homer. Rausch and Garcia finished with two singles along with Keola Lutz, whose second single coupled with Kailua errors resulted in a three-run inside-the-park round trip in the fourth inning.
Kailua picked up five hits led by Watanabe’s grand slam, Cameron Wong’s first inning two-run homer and Tom’s sixth inning shot, her second in the tournament. Colin Kubota rounded out the Kailua hitting with a single in the fifth inning. Dalton Kalama opened with a single, scoring on Wong’s homer.
Game time for the championship of the District 1 tournament is 4 p.m. at the New Kapa‘a Town Park Main Diamond.
