LIHU‘E — After failing to pick up a win during the first round, it didn’t take long for the Kapa‘a Warriors to right the ship as they opened up Saturday’s doubleheader action with a 6-4, eight-inning victory over the Kaua‘i
LIHU‘E — After failing to pick up a win during the first round, it didn’t take long for the Kapa‘a Warriors to right the ship as they opened up Saturday’s doubleheader action with a 6-4, eight-inning victory over the Kaua‘i Red Raiders.
Kaua‘i quickly bounced back and the first-round champs were a 17-7 winner in six innings in the nightcap at Vidinha Stadium.
Both teams now sit at 1-1 in the second round, with Waimea yet to play. Kapa‘a is 1-7 on the season, as Kaua‘i is 6-2-1 including Wednesday’s playoff win over the Menehune.
“It was a good team effort, everybody contributed,” said Kapa‘a head coach Gordon Muramaru. “Everybody played hard and they battled to the end in both games.”
His standout performer of the opening game was Kalen Iwai, who went 3 for 5 at the plate with two triples, two runs scored and an RBI. His single in the eighth inning scored Aaron “AJ” Cummings to put Kapa‘a ahead 5-4, which it added to when Bronson Aiwohi doubled to bring Iwai home in the next at-bat.
Iwai also picked up the victory on the mound, throwing the final 3.1 innings and giving up one run on two hits, while striking out four Raider hitters.
Freshman pitcher Nick Tabura started the game for Kapa‘a and the crafty left-hander continued to display good stuff. He threw 4.2 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on two hits and struck out seven, while also walking seven.
Aiwohi went 2 for 5 with a run and an RBI, while Kekoa Alfiler was 2 for 4 with a double, a walk and an RBI. Kysen Lopez went 1 for 3 with an RBI and was hit by a pitch twice. AJ Cummings was 1 for 3 with a pair of runs scored.
Shea Shimabukuro took the loss for the Raiders, surrendering the go-ahead run in the eighth on a pair of hits. Erin Doi started for Kaua‘i and went 4.0 innings, giving up two runs on five hits and walking one.
Hank “Kawika” Ibia came on and went 0.2 innings, giving up one run on one hit. Travis Koga threw 3.1 innings in total for the Raiders, giving up two runs (one earned) on three hits, with three strikeouts and a walk.
The Raiders wasted little time responding in the second game, setting down Kapa‘a 1-2-3 in the top half before scoring seven runs in the bottom of the first inning. Kellen Aquino led things off with a double and scored on an error before Koga belted a triple that plated Ibia for a quick 2-0 lead, just three batters into the game. Austin Oshiro brought home Koga on a sac fly, before a Doi single, a Tyrin Texeira double and a Shimabukuro intentional walk loaded the bases. All three came in to score on a combination of back-to-back singles from Nicholas Vallatini and Matthew Ebueng, along with some Warrior miscues.
Kapa‘a was able to escape the inning with the bases still loaded, but faced a 7-0 deficit. The lead was 9-0 after the second when Doi and Vallatini each singled and scored a run.
Kapa‘a got on the board in the third on an Alfiler sacrifice fly to score Derek Yamane, but Koga belted a solo home run in the bottom half for a 10-1 lead.
The Warriors fought back with a run in the fourth, two in the fifth and three more in the sixth to tighten things up to 10-7.
But the Raiders ended the day’s events by going off for another seven runs in the bottom of the sixth, sending 12 hitters to plate. Kanoa Iwasaki was 2 for 2 in the sixth inning alone and had the walk-off single that plated Koga, putting the 10-run rule into effect.
The Raiders used four hits — two of them bunt singles — along with two walks, two Kapa‘a errors and two hit batsmen in that sixth inning.
Koga had a monster game, going 3 for 4 with a double, a triple, a home run, three runs and four RBIs.
Vallatini was 3 for 3 with a pair of runs and Doi was 2 for 2 with three runs.
Vallatini picked up the victory for the Raiders, while Robert Soares suffered the loss for the Warriors.
Waimea opens up its second round with a single game against Kapa‘a at 3:30 p.m., Wednesday at the Ron Martin Field in Kapa‘a.
