If the Kailua Surfriders appear to have a little more sparkle on the baseball diamond these days, check their shoes. Kailua wears unity
on shoes in winBy Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.comThe Surfriders are sporting uniform silver shoes this postseason, the result of some spray paint and a team bonding experiment.
"These guys are a little bit different," Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. "But it's a good thing. At least they're working together as a team now. Early in the season that wouldn't have happened. But now they realize baseball is a team sport and they need to work together."
Kailua presented a united front yesterday in rallying past Mililani 5-3 in the quarterfinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation State Baseball Championship at Les Murakami Stadium.
The defending state champion Surfriders advance to tonight's semifinal game against Mid-Pacific at 7:30. Mililani falls into the fifth-place bracket where it faces Baldwin at 2:30.
The Kailua players painted their shoes prior to last week's Oahu Interscholastic Association tournament and have won 11 consecutive postseason games.
"We know we can get the job done, so it's just a matter of who wants it more," Kailua third baseman Garrett Yamamoto said.
Yamamoto went 3-for-4 and helped spark Kailua's five-run rally in the top of the fifth inning.
The Surfriders were anything but dazzling early in the game as Mililani used two Kailua throwing errors to take a 2-0 lead in the second inning.
Kailua opened the fifth by loading the bases with nobody out. Taleki Mailau flared a single to right field to score Shaun Sasaki and Yamamoto gave the Surfriders a 3-2 lead with a two-run single to left. Kailua then tacked on two more runs.
Yamamoto said facing a steady diet of left-handers last week in the OIA playoffs helped the Surfriders gear up for Mililani lefty Christopher Balatico, who had surrendered just two runs in his seven previous starts.
"We faced (Waianae's Dane) Awana, we faced (Roosevelt's) Chris Mols ... we've seen pretty much the best lefties in the OIA, so we were prepared for Balatico," he said.
Kailua (12-3) 000 050 0 -- 5 8 2 Mililani (11-4) 020 010 0 -- 3 6 3 Kamaile Santos and Cody Texeira-Vickery; Christopher Balatico, Clinton Blackman (5), Trey Brown (7) and Shawn Saito. W--Santos. L--Balatico.
Leading hitters--Kailua: Garrett Yamamoto 3-4, 2 RBIs; Jarid Kawamoto 2b; Santos 2-4, 2b, RBI. Mililani: Justin Amano 2-3; Brian Uranaka 2b.
Kamehameha 8, Waianae 4
The top-seeded Warriors advanced to face Roosevelt in the semifinals by winning a bizarre game with the Seariders that ended at 11:07 p.m.
The first two innings took about and hour and a half as the starting pitchers combined for eight walks and two hit batsmen.
After Kamehameha jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first, Waianae scored four in the bottom of the inning on three bases-loaded walks and a hit batter.
The Warriors closed to 4-3 in the second and took the lead in a wild fourth.
With runners on first and second and one out, Kahe Santos tied the game with an RBI single to score Keoni Ruth.
J.P. Kennedy flied out to center and the Seariders tried to catch Shannon Kahale wandering off second base. The errant throw rolled into right field, allowing Kahale to score from second and give Kamehameha a 5-4 lead.
Santos tried to follow Kahale to the plate but was caught in a rundown between third and home. Santos got into a shoving match with Waianae catcher Michael Ferreira after the tag was applied. Tempers flared and the teams charged the field.
The squads were separated and play was delayed about 20 minutes as the players cooled off. When the umpires returned to the field, the reserves for both teams were instructed to stay in the tunnels behind the dugouts. Only the players in the game were allowed to stay in the dugouts. Santos and Ferreira were ejected and must sit out today's games.
Kamehameha (15-4) 210 230 0 -- 8 8 2 Waianae (11-2) 400 000 0 -- 4 3 7 Zach McAngus, Ikena Dupont (1) and Baba Merino; Dane Awana, Calvin Uyechi (2), Cid Moses (4) and Michael Ferreira. W--Dupont. L--Moses.
Leading hitters--Kamehameha: Kahe Santos 2-3, 3b, 2 RBIs; JP Kennedy 2-4, RBI. Waianae: Uyechi 3b.
Mid-Pacific 11, Baldwin 6
The Owls turned the semifinals into an all-Oahu affair by knocking off the Maui Interscholastic League champion Bears.
After a shaky start by Justin Pate, MPI reliever Harrison Kuroda shut the Bears down in the middle innings and earned the win.
The Owls took control with eight runs on eight hits in innings three through five.
Mid-Pacific (16-5) 304 310 0 -- 11 11 3 Baldwin (14-6) 310 000 2 -- 6 10 2 Justin Pate, Harrison Kuroda (2) and Matt Inouye; Ryan Racadio, Meade Tabata (4) and Tabata, Gered Mochizuki (4). W--Kuroda. L--Racadio.
Leading hitters--MPI: Troy Hanzawa 2-5, 2 RBIs; Inouye 2b, RBI; Isaac Omura 2-5, 3b, 2 RBIs; Ryan Basco 3b, 2 RBIs; Jonathan Hee 3-4, RBI; Marc Inamasu 2 RBIs. Baldwin: Chad Nikaido 2-3; Meade Tabata 2-2, RBI; Gered Mochizuki 2-3, 2b, RBI; Royce Miyazono 2-4.
Roosevelt 6, Hilo 5
The Rough Riders survived an error-filled contest to advance to today's semifinals.
Roosevelt took a 4-1 lead only to see Hilo tie the game with three runs in the bottom of the fourth thanks in part to two Rough Rider errors.
The Vikings then took the lead in the fifth when a fielding error allowed Kaiana Trask to score the go-ahead run with two out.
The Rough Riders battled back in their final turn at bat. Cameron Kimura led off the seventh with a triple to right-center. After a pop out, Blake Isobe's fly ball to right field was dropped and Kimura scored to tie the game at 5.
Ivan Fujii reached base on a fielder's choice and stole second. He scored the eventual winning run on Brandon Loo's ground-rule double to right.
Roosevelt (12-3) 310 000 2 -- 6 8 4 Hilo (11-4) 010 310 0 -- 5 8 2 Cameron Kimura and Brandon Loo, Kevin Fujii (5), Loo (7); Charles Haasenritter and Matthew Haasenritter. W--Kimura. L--C. Haasenritter.
Leading hitters--Roosevelt: Kimura 2-4, 3b, RBI; Blake Isobe 2-3, 2 RBI; Loo 2-4, 2b, 2 RBIs. Hilo: Kaiana Trask 2-3; Ikaika Naipo 2-4.
Maui 2, Kapaa 1 CONSOLATION BRACKET
Kapaa (8-8) 000 100 0 -- 1 5 2 Maui (17-5) 100 100 x -- 2 4 3 Kai Lopez and Bradley Watuka. Vance Otake and Gavin Takakura. W -- Otake. L -- Lopez.
Leading hitters -- Kapaa: Kaili Panui 2-3; Dustin Mundon 2-3, 2b, RBI. Maui: Kapena Mathias 2-3, 2 2b, RBI; Manu Kaina, RBI.
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