California clubs continued their dominance of the Iolani Invitational volleyball tournament yesterday, with Harvard-Westlake running through Pool C with an 8-0 mark and Mira Costa going 7-1 in Pool D. The class of California
still winningWednesday, Mater Dei (Calif.) won Pool B with a perfect record and Clovis West (Calif.) won its pool with just one loss.
St. Joseph's nearly kept up with Harvard-Westlake in Pool C, running through the rest of the field undefeated but dropping straight sets to the California squad, 15-4, 15-0. Harvard-Westlake went unchallenged throughout the majority of the first round, giving up only eight points in its first four sets before Kamehameha scored 17 points in two games in a losing effort.
The Cardinals recovered from the loss to beat Kamehameha 15-8, 13-11 and take second place with a 6-2 record.
Mira Costa was just as dominant in its pool, earning three shutouts in its eight games -- including a 15-0, 15-0 whitewash of Aiea. Lanai was cruising toward a winning record before running into a hot Roosevelt team and losing 15-7,15-8. After losing its first four games to California teams, Roosevelt won its last four to forge a .500 record.
The next round of play begins today with three pools of four teams -- and nine Hawaii teams -- playing in the consolation bracket. Iolani and St. Joseph's advanced to the winner's bracket against four California teams.
Aiea Jr. Little Leaguers make it to semifinals
Aiea's Junior Little League team made it to the final four of the World Series in Taylor, Mich., with a 4-1 win over Fort Wayne, Ind., yesterday.Aiea is looking to become the first team to win the championship in consecutive years and can earn a spot in the championship game with a win today over Lake Charles, La.
Ian Mopas, Lance Powell and Blaze Moleta each had two hits -- the team banged out nine -- while Kyle Sakamoto was perfect in relief after Christian Johnson gave up Indiana's lone run in 323 innings.
Should Aiea win today, it would play in the championship game, which will be broadcast by ESPN2 on a tape delay basis Monday at 8 a.m. HST. The championship game is tomorrow at noon HST.
Carolina crews lead Billfish tournament
After three days of fishing, the Pajaro Valley Gamefish Club leads the Hawaii Billfishing Tournament on Kailua Pier at Kailua-Kona with 1,350 points after adding only 300 yesterday. The Old South Marlin Club's second team stands in second with 1,150 and the Old South Marlin Club's first team is in third with 1,000.The Old South Marlin Club Team No. 2 of Raleigh, North Carolina struck hard, tagging and releasing a total of three Pacific Blue Marlin for 850 points.
Keaulana eliminated at Oxbow Championships
Defending champion Beau Young of Australia eliminated three-time event winner Rusty Keaulana of Hawaii during yesterday's top match of the 10th annual Oxbow Championships.Today is the final day of competition.
Young, 26, who won last year's tournament in Brazil, overcame his more seasoned opponent, despite trailing at the start. The Australian picked off two 8-point rides for the lead, and then pushed Keaulana into the unusual position of needing a combination of rides to advance. The local product came back with a final 7.5 score but needed an 8.51.
Hawaii's Bonga Perkins and Dino Miranda advanced to today's competition.
Hawaii's Own
Benny Agbayani, Mets: A day after manager Bobby Valentine said he would bench Agbayani in favor of Joe McEwing if the team was in contention, the St. Louis School and Hawaii Pacific alumnus started in New York's 6-5 loss to the Padres and broke out of his slump by going 2-for-4 with a run scored."If today was a cutoff day, you'd have to say McEwing and Shinjo would play the rest of the way and Benny and Jay (Payton) wouldn't, and I don't think that's fair," Valentine told the Newark Star-Ledger.
"I don't think its fair right now, with six weeks left, to tell four guys, who are all trying to be as good a big leaguer as they can be, who all want to earn their salaries for their families and their future, to say that someone is not going to have an opportunity to earn as good a salary as he can."
Agbayani used his opportunity to earn his $260,000 salary yesterday, leading off the second inning with a single to shallow left-center off Brian Tollberg. But Agbayani was stranded when Rey Ordonez grounded into a double play. Agbayani got his second hit of the day in the sixth and scored when Ordonez came through with a two-out double.
Agbayani was replaced by Shinjo for defensive purposes in the eighth inning.
"I guess I lost my position," Agbayani told the New York Post before the game. "I got hurt and I didn't come back (well). That (stinks), but that is the way it has to be."
Mike Fetters, Pirates: the Iolani School product had his second straight day off in Pittsburgh's 4-3 loss to the Astros. The closer has appeared in six of his 15 games with the team, which is more work than he was getting with the contending Dodgers. Fetters only appeared in four of his last 15 games with the Dodgers.
The Pirates are 3-3 in games that Fetters pitched in and 1-8 in games he didn't.
If the Pirates can get a late lead against the Astros today, they should have a good chance to win as Fetters has held the Astros to a .235 batting average, striking out nine and walking three.