LIHUE — The West Kauai Bronco all-stars capitalized on Lihue all-star miscues as they piled up seven runs in the fifth, and added another nine runs in the sixth inning to take the Wednesday afternoon playoffs 22-6 at the Lihue
LIHUE — The West Kauai Bronco all-stars capitalized on Lihue all-star miscues as they piled up seven runs in the fifth, and added another nine runs in the sixth inning to take the Wednesday afternoon playoffs 22-6 at the Lihue County Park.
Dalton Christy, whose performance was not limited to mound chores, went the distance for West Kauai in the win, allowing the six Lihue runs that came on seven hits.
Christy wrapped up his pitching with seven whiffs in the six-inning affair while allowing just a pair of walks in the victory.
A two-run homer with two outs in the third inning soared over the leftfield fence, critical in keeping West Kauai in the contest as Kalama Resquer-Yorkman, drawing a walk in that frame, came home along with Christy, effectively keeping WK in the chase 5-4.
WK went ahead in the fourth inning as Dallas Correa, drawing first on a walk, promptly stole second before being driven home by Chyson Goias’s hit to rightfield, Goias settling at second on the RBI.
Goias slipped through for a steal of third as the contest started to unravel for Lihue, Goias scoring the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, 6-5.
Jaexanne Balilea replaced a tiring Taran Tani on the mound for Lihue. West Kauai, however, hammered the Lihue closer for the seven- and nine-run ending innings. WK capitalizing on just three hits in the fifth, and piled up eight hits in the final frame. WK cashed in on four costly Lihue errors in the fifth.
The Lihue red shirts opened the contest with three runs coming on three hits as Tani got on board on a leftfield single with two down, and scored on a Balilea hit to center.
Balilea trotted home on a three-bagger by Keahi Benzon in that opening frame, Benzon scoring on a catching error before WK closed the frame with a strikeout.
Lihue answered the two-run Christy homer in the third as Balilea cracked a two-RBI single, scoring Travis Koga and Tani, both of whom got aboard on singles.
Kyle Nuivo notched the final Lihue run in the sixth frame.
The Lihue Mustang all-stars will travel to the Kato Field in Hanapepe for their second matchup on Saturday morning starting at 11:30 a.m.
The Bronco all-star series will precede this contest starting at 9:30 a.m.
Winners in the best two-of-three series will represent Kauai at the state tournament that will take place at the Mililani sports complex on Oahu in July.
