KAPA‘A — In the very first junior varsity game of the season, the Kapa‘a High School Warriors and the Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders battled to a 5-5 tie Thursday evening at Ron Martin Field in Kapa‘a. After falling behind
KAPA‘A — In the very first junior varsity game of the season, the Kapa‘a High School Warriors and the Kaua‘i High School Red Raiders battled to a 5-5 tie Thursday evening at Ron Martin Field in Kapa‘a.
After falling behind 4-1, the Red Raiders were able to come back to take a 5-4 lead in the top of the seventh inning, only to let it slip away in the bottom of the seventh when Kapa‘a’s Joshua Blain was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded by Micah Layosa. Layosa bounced back to strikeout the next batter with the bases still loaded to end the game.
The Red Raiders were fortunate to walk away with a tie. Kaua‘i made a pair of crucial errors in the first inning, which allowed Kapa‘a to jump out to a 3-0 lead on starting pitcher Keala Iwasaki.
Opposing Iwasaki was DJ Lacaden for Kapa‘a, and Lacaden was able to throw three scoreless innings and finish 2 for 3 at the plate and got on base in all three plate appearances.
In relief, Grant Mitchell would go the rest of the way for Kapa‘a and cruised through his first three innings of work giving up just one run to keep Kapa‘a in the lead 4-1.
It was in the top of the seventh inning where Mitchell would run into trouble. A trio of singles from Jared Killeen, Gunner Vallatini and Darren Leanio-Balagat to go along with three walks from Mitchell allowed Kaua‘i to tie the score at 4-4. Finally, a pass ball enabled Kaiwi Nadarisay-Bejo to score form third base and let the Red Raiders take a 5-4 lead.
Mitchell finished with three strikeouts in four innings pitched.
The bottom of the seventh was equally chaotic for the Red Raiders. Lacaden led off the inning with a single, which was followed by a sacrifice bunt from Tommy Stern. After a strikeout, the Warriors were down to its final out before a walk and two batters were hit by pitches resulted in the one run Kapa‘a needed to tie the game.
The next junior varsity contest will be on Thursday when the Waimea Menehune will open up against the Red Raiders at Hanapepe Stadium. Game time is 4 p.m.
The varsity will be back in action today with Kapa‘a (1-0) traveling to Hanapepe for a doubleheader against the Menehune (2-0). The first game is scheduled to start at 10 a.m. with the second game starting 30 minutes after game one ends.
