Kapaa High School’s varsity softball team lost to Honokaa High School in a consolation game Friday during the 2019 DataHouse Softball Championships-Division II state tournament.
The Kauai Interscholastic Federation’s Warriors lost to Honokaa of the Big Island Interscholastic Federation, 4-0. Play ended after six innings because of the 90-minute time limit for consolation games.
Kapaa was tagged with three errors in the bottom of the first inning, which helped Honokaa score all four of its runs.
Honokaa first baseman Alexis Martinez hit an RBI triple to right field, and right fielder Ceelyn Gali-Lucero hit an RBI single to left field in the inning to help the Dragons get their early 4-0 lead.
“They threw the ball around. We weathered that storm,” said Kapaa head coach Francis Takasaki in a phone interview Friday. “Then, it was up to our offense. We had a few more hits this time around, but it still wasn’t enough to generate runs.”
In the top of the second inning, with two outs and a runner a third base, Kapaa right fielder Haylee Garcia-Raquel struck out looking to leave the runner stranded at third.
The Warriors had another chance to cut into the Dragons’ lead in the top of the sixth when catcher Savannah Simmons started the inning with a leadoff triple to center field.
Later in the inning, with one out, designated player Shaylin Rivera grounded into a double play. Rivera grounded to the pitcher for the second out at first base, and then Simmons was tagged out going for home plate.
Kapaa got zero runs on four hits, left five runners on base and recorded three errors in the first inning. Simmons was 1 for 3 hitting with a triple. Rivera was 1 for 2 and was once walked.
Warriors starting pitcher Shanayah Marshall took the loss. Marshall pitched just the first inning, allowing four runs — one run was unearned — on four hits and had one walk.
Seijia Makanani, who started at left fielder, pitched in relief. Makanani went five innings, allowed zero runs on two hits and had four strikeouts and two walks.
“Again, she did a great job coming in,” Takasaki said. “But the whole bottom line is that our offense could not generate anything off our bats. That’s always going to be a problem. When it comes down to it, the bats have to be able to produce.”
Honokaa got four runs on six hits, left five runners on base and did not record an error. Martinez was 1 for 3 with an RBI triple and score a run. Gali-Lucero was 1 for 3 with an RBI single and scored a run.
Dragons starter Tehani Epenesa got the win. She threw all six innings and got two strikeouts and three walks.
Kapaa ends its 2019 season with an 11-4 overall record. The Warriors were 11-2 in KIF play en route to winning its third consecutive league championship and was 0-2 at the Division II state tournament.
“We try really hard, as best as we can, to be peaking at the right time,” Takasaki said. “I think we accomplished that in the regular season. In the postseason up here, we actually increased our workload a little. That might be something we got to re-evaluate, as far as the amount of reps we took hitting-wise. We got to re-evaluate that, come back next year and learn from that.”
Info from Hawaii High School Athletic Association.
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Nick Celario, sports writer, can be reached at 245-0437 or ncelario@thegardenisland.com.
