KALAHEO — Levi Sagucio had a two-run home run and pitched two innings of shutout baseball and Tanner McDaniel marked four RBI to help lead the Kalawai Cardinals to a 15-5 win over the Waimea Jays in a game shortened
KALAHEO — Levi Sagucio had a two-run home run and pitched two innings of shutout baseball and Tanner McDaniel marked four RBI to help lead the Kalawai Cardinals to a 15-5 win over the Waimea Jays in a game shortened by the 10-run rule, Saturday at Kalawai Park.
The Cardinals’ win gives the redshirts a perfect 12-0 season in the West Kaua‘i Mustang league and they begin preparations for a playoff against Lihu‘e to determine who will represent Kaua‘i at the Mustang state championships in June.
Sagucio, who smacked his homer to leftfield in the second inning, picked up the win on the mound, striking out five of the six Jays batters he faced.
Led by Alika Ventura who finished 2-for-2 with two RBI in the batters box, Kalawai picked up the win on nine hits.
Patrick Traller followed Sagucio in the second inning with an inside-the-park HR, Tanner was 1-for-2 with four RBI, his hit a single to second in the third inning.
The Jays also had their moment in the sun as the blueshirts pushed five runs on four hits in the fourth inning.
“We wanted three runs (to stay alive), but we were surprised with five runs,” the Jays’ scorekeeper said.
With one out, Jays’ shortstop Dylan Balaan walked, stole second and third to score on a passed ball. Cody Taniguchi, closing the game from Kenji Toyofuku, singled to centerfield and scored on an RBI single off Colby Aana-Todd.
Toyofuku, celebrating a birthday, came up with the third straight hit, a single. Eosen Chelius got aboard on an interference call followed by two runs scoring on Jonathan Dulay’s single to leftfield.
Kayla Nakaya, thrilled with being on the field, sacrificed another run home with a bunt to keep the game going.
But Kalawai answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth to end the contest, McDaniel’s putout pushing two final runs across.
The Jays’ coaching staff was thrilled with the performance put forth by the crop of first-year Mustang players, noting that the entire team with the exception of one two-year player are all fresh off the Pinto fields.
“They had fun out there, and that’s the main thing,” the Jays’ scorekeeper said.
