When the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association handed out the seedings for this week’s state softball tournament, Kaua‘i head coach Darrell Borrero was a little surprised. “I was thinking maybe we’ll be fourth-seeded or something, not second. But we’ll take
When the Hawai‘i High School Athletic Association handed out the seedings for this week’s state softball tournament, Kaua‘i head coach Darrell Borrero was a little surprised.
“I was thinking maybe we’ll be fourth-seeded or something, not second. But we’ll take it,” he said.
The girls leave for O‘ahu today. The Division II tournament begins tomorrow at the Central O‘ahu Regional Park, at 5 p.m.
Because Kaua‘i’s girls are the No. 2 seed, they don’t play until Thursday. They will face the winner of tomorrow’s Pahoa and Kaiser High game.
“We’ll be working on strengthening our defense, because we always hit. We want to try and not give as many runs,” Borrero said.
This extra day also gives them an extra day to rest.
“I’ve always said the Outer Islands have a disadvantage when it comes to pitching because they have maybe three pitchers,” he said. “Here in KIF, we have really one strong pitcher, so the more rest we can get, the better.”
This is the third year in a row that Kaua‘i has made it to the state tournament. Senior catcher Samantha Koga said the team is feeling a little bit of pressure.
“Our goal is to make it to the finals,” she said. “Because we’re ranked second, the expectations are higher. We want to do better than we did last year.”
Last year, the Red Raiders were eliminated in the first round by Sacred Hearts Academy. The Lancers eventually went on to the finals and was crowned the runners-up.
This year, Sacred Hearts was awarded the top-seed and is in a different playing bracket.
“We beat them during the pre-season game so we want to beat them again,” said senior in-fielder Randi Oketani.
When Sacred Hearts came to Kaua‘i for a pre-season softball tournament, Kaua‘i won by two runs.
“They’re a good team,” said Koga. “They’re like our rivals. We want to at least challenge them and the way to do that is reach the championship game,” said Koga.
The last time a KIF school won the softball championship was in 1990 when Waimea won over Kailua.
Saturday’s championship game will be broadcast on Oceanic Cable’s OC 16 at 6 p.m., on Starcomm Sports Radio on FM 97.5 KHNR and streaming on the Web at www.hi50sports.com.
