TT went mostly unnoticed, but Hawaii prep baseball registered a win Saturday night at Aloha Stadium that might reverberate beyond these shores. Kamehameha strikes blow
for local baseballKamehameha Schools snapped the 51-game winning streak of New Hope High School of Mississippi with a 3-0 victory in the final of the 17th Annual Dick Kitamura Tournament.
I was there on my night off and I can tell you I'm glad I was, for a variety of reasons.
I got to see a local team knock off a supremely confident, well-coached, nationally ranked team (25th in USA Today's preseason poll) with outstanding pitching, superb defense, smart base running and timely hitting.
Most of the fans present for the game were from the large Mississippi travel contingent and they did their best to make the Warriors feel like they were playing in a ballpark in the Deep South.
The loss might be one the Mississippi contingent won't say very much about back home - you know, losing to the Hawaiians and all. But, with the way word travels these days, Kamehameha might find that it has struck a significant blow for island prep baseball.
THE Baltimore Orioles' regional scout sitting next to me said he was impressed with the caliber of team play Kamehameha displayed. You know he'll mention that in other parts of the country.
This might have been the first victory by a Hawaii varsity team over a prep baseball program with a national ranking.
That is very significant, and it could open the door to consideration of Kamehameha for its own national ranking.
"It's good for all the programs out here," said Kamehameha head coach Vern Ramie, who played Triple-A ball in the Toronto Blue Jays' system.
Ramie's right. If Kamehameha, which is not the prohibitive favorite to dominate locally in 1997, can beat a national power, then a very intact 1996 state champion Iolani team, or a genuinely talented Punahou squad with two Division I-bound players on board, can also be considered for the USA Today poll.
The biggest obstacle to Hawaii prep baseball teams making the poll is a standard view that the competition and coaching out here are generally weaker than the rest of the nation.
But Ramie helped dispel that view by outcoaching a tough opponent in the opposite dugout. New Hope head coach Stacey Hester had 302 wins against 70 losses coming into the stadium.
THERE were more than 200 people in the New Hope group and Ramie remembers seeing some of them wearing T-shirts that boldly read, "50th win in the 50th state."
They got that 50th win with great difficulty against Punahou at Ala Wai Field on Thursday as Stanford-bound Buffanblu right-hander Justin Wayne lost a 1-0 decision to New Hope right-hander Jeff Hunter. No. 51 was a 21-10 victory at Mid-Pacific.
But right-hander Lanakila Niles, going one pitch over Ramie's 80-pitch standard, and Dane Sardinha, one of America's top amateur draft prospects from the prep ranks, pulled a cloud over the Mississippians' vacation.
Sore-shouldered Sardinha rapped a two-strike single to right in the first inning to drive in Shane Chan with the only run Niles would need.
Winning meant so much to the Mississippians that Hester brought in Hunter in relief with only one day's rest from pitching a complete game against Punahou.
It was particularly exciting to feel the kind of intensity that permeated the Kamehameha-New Hope final. It was a preseason baseball game, but it seemed like a postseason showdown.
Mid-Pacific Institute athletic director Don Botelho put together this Kitamura tournament. By not being afraid to schedule a strong mainland entry, he boosted the image of local prep ball.