ILH BASEBALL
Warriors stay alive in ILH
Kamehameha is in the running for a state tourney berth
No. 8 Kamehameha took advantage of an uncharacteristic five errors by top-ranked Punahou, to keep its ILH baseball championship hopes alive last night at Aloha Stadium.
Aaron Nichols reached base five times, including three hits, as the Warriors beat the Buffanblu 11-5.
It was the first loss of the double-elimination postseason tournament for Punahou (13-3). The teams meet again tomorrow at 5 p.m. at Central Oahu Regional Park for the tournament championship.
If Kamehameha (10-8) wins again tomorrow, the teams play a third time in five days on Friday for the overall ILH championship. A Punahou win results in Kamehameha playing Iolani on Friday for the league's second of two berths in the state tournament.
Punahou clinched a state berth previously by winning the regular-season title.
"It was a nice win tonight but we've still got a long way to go," Kamehameha coach Vern Ramie said. "It's an uphill battle and Punahou is better than they played tonight. We still have our hands full."
After hitting two of the first three batters starting the game, Kamehameha's John Worthington settled down and gave up just one hit and one earned run in 3 2/3 innings for the win. He teamed with Kawika Omoto and Alika Pruett to hold the Buffanblu to four hits.
"(John) got us deeper than we expected tonight," Ramie said. "We played so many games recently our pitching is thin, but they came up with a nice effort tonight."
The Warriors took a 1-0 lead in the third inning on an error by Punahou third baseman Steven Dannaway. After Nichols walked and stole second, Dannaway tried to catch him in a rundown between second and third -- but his throw went into right field, and Nichols scored.
Kamehameha added two runs in the fourth as Parker McCready and Royce Piiohia hit back-to-back doubles and Nichols added a run-scoring single.
"We came out swinging tonight and really picked up our hitting in this tournament," Nichols said. "We know Scott (Punahou starter Hiramoto) is good. So our goal is to come out and be aggressive at the plate and try to take him out early."
Hiramoto gave up five hits and three runs in four innings for the loss. Punahou was hurt by critical miscues in the field.
Kamehameha scored twice with three Punahou errors in the fifth. With runners on first and second and one out, Dannaway made a nice grab of a ground ball by McCready. After getting the force at third he attempted a throw to first for the double play. The ball went over the first basemen's head, allowing a run to score.
On the next play, catcher Zachary Kometani tried to pick off McCready, but the ball went into center, allowing McCready to score.
"We just played a poor game tonight," Punahou coach Eric Kadooka said. "We put ourselves in a bad position and we had to rush."
At Aloha Stadium
Kamehameha (10-8) |
001 |
222 |
4 |
-- |
11 |
12 |
1 |
Punahou (13-3) |
000 |
102 |
2 |
-- |
5 |
4 |
5 |
John Worthington, Kawika Omoto (4), Alika Pruett (6) and Stuart Kam; Scott Hiramoto, Paul Snieder (5), Reece Kiriu (6), Justin Ingalls (7), Cheyne Okawa (7) and Zachary Kometani, Travis Tanaka (7). W--Worthington. L--Hiramoto.
Leading hitters--Kam: Aaron Nichols 3-3, 2b, 2 RBIs; Waylen Sing Chow 2-4; S. Kam 2-4, 2 RBIs; Royce Piiohia 2-4, 2b; Piikea Kitamura 2-4; Parker McCready 2b.Pun: P. Snieder 2-2, 2b; Bucky Aona 2-run HR.