Friday, December 13, 1996

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Sharks close out CaneFires

The Honolulu Sharks showed why they finished with the best record in Hawaii Winter Baseball with a regular-season ending 14-7 romp over the West Oahu CaneFires last night at Hans L'Orange Field.

The Sharks, who easily outdistanced the CaneFires for the Outrigger Division title by 15 games, will play the Maui Stingrays in the Hawaii Winter Baseball championship game today at Hilo's Francis Wong Stadium.

Maui's game against the Hilo Stars last night was rained out. The Stingrays finished as Volcano Division champions with a 25-24 record, six games in front of the Stars.

Takayumi Saitoh paced the Sharks last night with three hits and two stolen bases. Saitoh and teammate Jason Conti, batting 1 and 2 in the order, each scored four runs.

Geoffrey Blum and Jeremy Carr also had three hits each for the Sharks.

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Final standings

Outrigger Division

  		W	L	Pct.	GB
Honolulu 	36	16	.692	--
West Oahu 	20	30	.400	15	

Volcano Division

  		W	L	Pct.	GB
Maui 		25	24	.510	--	
Hilo 		19	30	.388	6	

Today's game

Championship game, Honolulu vs. Maui, 6 p.m., Francis Wong Stadium.

Last night's results

Honolulu 14, West Oahu 7

Maui at Hilo cancelled, rain

At Hans L'Orange Park

Honolulu  	200	043	014--14	20	4
West Oahu 	100	401	010-- 7	10	6

John Kelly, Yoshihiro Seo (5), Takuichi Koike (8) and Shunsuke Hara, Skip Shipp; Terry Harvey, Cam Smith (5), Ji Chol Park (6), Jason Myers (8) and Kevin Lidle. W-Kelly (2-0). L-Harvey (1-4).

Leading hitters-Honolulu: Takayuki Saitoh, 3-5, 2b; Jason Conti, 2b; Geoffrey Blum, 3-3; Jeremy Carr, 3-3, 2b; Donovan Delaney, 2b; Mike Asche, 2-6, 3 RBIs; Vashon Walker, 2b; Matt Smith, 2b; Shunsuke Hara, 3-4, 2 3b. Hilo: Atsunori Inaba, 2-4, 2b; Matt Bokemeier, 2-5; Marty Gazarek, 2-4, HR, 2 RBIs; Lidle, 2-5, HR; Brad Tiller, 2-3, 2 RBIs, 2b.