Wednesday, April 1, 1998
Iolani earns tie
with St. Louis
The key ILH baseball game
By Pat Bigold
is called after seven innings
due to darkness
Star-BulletinScott Tajima lofted a 310-foot double to the fence in left field in the bottom of the seventh inning to drive in Kevin Kam from third base as host Iolani secured an 11-11 tie with St. Louis yesterday in a key Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball game. The game was called after the seventh inning due to darkness at the Iolani field, which has no lights.
The tie left the defending league and state champion Raiders at 2-1-1, and the preseason favorite Crusaders still unbeaten at 2-0-1.
The offensive spark plugs were St. Louis' Chad Santos and Iolani's Kainoa Obrey.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pounders each hit two home runs. Santos drove in five runs and Obrey, who now has three homers, drove in six.
"I'm happy we stayed with St. Louis, but our pitching and defense have to be a lot better," Iolani coach Dean Yonamine said. "We can't expect to be outscoring teams. That's not our game this year."
The game Yonamine expects Iolani to play was exemplified in Doug Jackson's perfectly placed bunt down the third base line, which put Kam in position to score the tying run.
"We had our opportunities to hold them and make plays," St. Louis coach Vince Passas said. "But we were down a bunch of runs and the guys battled back. I'm real proud they battled back."
Iolani led, 7-3, in the fourth inning. But St. Louis rallied to tie at 9 in the sixth as Santos hit his second homer -- a three-run shot from the left side of the plate that sailed over the center-field fence.
Tajima, who went 4-for-5 with two RBIs, singled in Jeff Iwashita in the bottom of the sixth to put Iolani back on top, 10-9. But St. Louis scored two runs in the top of the seventh to make it 11-10.
In other games, the Sardinhas -- Duke and Bronson -- combined to drive in six runs as Kamehameha (2-2) routed Maryknoll (1-3), 12-0; Bobby Haruno and Paul Alejo each drove in three runs as Damien (2-2) defeated UHS/HBA (1-3), 12-5, and Mid-Pacific (1-3) edged Punahou (3-1), 5-4.
