Maui advances in PONY Mustang tourney

LIHU`E—The Maui All-Stars took both ends of a double-header to advance in the

2000 PONY Baseball Hawai`i Region Mustang tournament being played at the Lihu`e

County Park.

The double win sets up the scenario for the July 4th games

when undefeated Mililani goes up against undefeated Hawai`i Kai in the 10 a.m.

opener, the loser of that contest having to face Maui in game 13 scheduled to

start at 12:30 p.m.

The loser will be eliminated to set the stage for the

championship game on Wednesday morning.

KAC was eliminated in the second

game of Day Three when Maui exploded for a 13-2 victory in a game shortened by

the 10-run rule before squeezing past Aiea 8-6 in the afternoon

contest.

Hilo was also eliminated when they were bested by Aiea in the

opening game 11-9.

After faltering in the opening frame, Brent Kim settled

down on the mound and held KAC to just the two runs scored in the first inning,

while Maui ignited for 5 runs in the second and fourth innings behind the bats

of Kelii Dias, going 2-for-2, and J. Bosque.

Lionel Fujioka, doing duty as

a shortstop as well as pitching and filling the lead-off batter slot for KAC,

suffered the loss.

John Haina, recovering from a hit pitch early in the

contest, led the KAC hitting with a single.

Although Aiea outslugged Maui

9-8, Maui went on to win 8-6, eliminating Aiea from the competition.

Jordan

Rego picked up the win for Maui on the hill with Ryne Acosta suffering the

loss.

Jensen Takiguchi, 3-for-3 in the outing, scored 2 runs as well as

whacking 3 singles. Erwin DeCoite had a perfect day behind the plate, banging

3 singles and scoring twice.

Acosta helped himself behind the plate for

Aiea with a 2-for-4 showing with a pair of singles and Atimai Sanley, also

2-for-4, added another pair of singles.

Hilo rebounded with a 7-run third

inning to squeeze past Aiea in the opener, only to have Aiea answer with 5 runs

in the fourth to take an 11-9 win behind the pitching of Bryson Nakamura and

hitting of Daniel Lambayan, Atamai Stanley, and Andrew Gouveia.

Kolten Wong

led the Hilo hitting on a 3-for-4 outing.