Aiea takes Bronco title

HANAPEPE — Aiea bats exploded for five hits, scoring six runs in the fifth inning en route to giving the greenshirts an 8-3 win over Mililani A yesterday at Hanapepe Stadium.

Capitalizing on a tiring Mililani pitching staff, Aiea came from a 2-1 deficit to surge ahead and capture the Bronco Regional Tournament. With the win, Aiea will represent Hawai‘i at the Bronco Zone Tournament held in Olympia, Wash., starting July 26.

With one out, Aiea started the fireworks when Austin Nagamine’s hard-hit ball to third base glanced off the baseman’s mitt.

With two out, Aiea got more base runners as Kyle Tom drew first on a walk, and left-handed batter Keenan Lum smacked an RBI single to cross Nagamine for the 2-2 tie.

Aiea secondbase Brent Sakurai followed with another RBI to score Higa for the go-ahead.

Ace Racuya drew another walk to load the pads as Mililani went to their bullpen. But that change was short-lived as Aiea continued to bang the ball.

Tyler Meditz, leadoff hitter for the greenshirts, smacked a 2-RBI double to leftfield, scoring Lum and Sakurai. Meditz was followed by Travis Garcia-Perreira, who cracked another 2-RBI shot, plating Racuya and Meditz.

That sent Mililani into the bullpen for the second time in the inning, Drake Yoshioka taking over for reliever Reese Kato. Yoshioka settled the Mililani defense to close the door with the final out, a fly to right field.

But the whiteshirts could not find their bats in the Hanapepe sun, and despite the encouragement from the blue-shirted fans, Mililani could only answer with a single run in the sixth inning. That run came when Keenan Sadanaga, singling to left, crossed on an RBI single from Presley Alcover, the pinch hitter who was awarded a home run ball for his Sunday feat when Mililani took out West Kaua‘i, 7-3.

Aiea took the victory behind 8 runs on 11 hits while holding Mililani to 3 runs on 7 hits.