Wednesday, May 19, 1999

Williams ignites
Waipahu victory

The Marauders' fireballer
strikes out eight in a 5-0 win
over Kailua in the state
baseball tournament

By Cindy Luis
Star-Bulletin

They came to see Jerome Williams.

They weren't disappointed.

Even though the hard-throwing senior for Waipahu didn't have his best stuff last night, it was still more than enough against Kailua in front of 1,178 at Rainbow Stadium. Williams struck out eight in a complete-game effort and the Marauders shut out the Surfriders, 5-0, in the last of four games on the opening day of the 41st HHSAA State Baseball Championship sponsored by the Wally Yonamine Foundation.

The victory puts Waipahu (10-4) into today's 2 p.m. game against third-seeded Hilo (12-1).

In other championship bracket games, fourth-seeded Pearl City (11-3) faced Kauai, a 4-1 winner yesterday over Aiea, at 11:30 a.m.; top seed Mid-Pacific (15-7) took on Baldwin (13-5), which downed Waiakea, 7-2, at 4:30 p.m., and at 7 p.m., No. 2 seed Molokai (15-2) meets three-time defending state champion Iolani (16-5), which rolled over Mililani, 9-1, yesterday.

"I felt pretty confident out there," said Williams, chosen a Top 25 high school pro prospect by Baseball America. "It was exciting to pitch in this stadium."

Williams won't be on the mound against Hilo today, instead swapping places with first baseman Joseph Moananu. Tournament rules limit a pitcher to 39 outs over three consecuitve days or 48 outs in four days, which includes a day of rest.

Kailua coach Corey Ishigo would have been happy to avoid Williams.

"Jerome is probably one of the best pitchers to ever come out of the state and we had to face him the first day," said Ishigo, the former University of Hawaii second baseman. "He was throwing hard, harder than it might have looked.

"We made a few mistakes but they were aggressive mistakes. The guys were a little nervous. We needed to hit and to play better defense."

One bright spot for the Surfriders came in the sixth, when they turned a triple play, thought to be the first in state tournament history. First baseman Jonathan Torres snagged a line-drive by Cedric Crisostomo, stepped on first to double up Andrew Asino then threw to second to catch Moananu off the bag to end the inning.

That was about the only thing that went right for Kailua, which stranded two runners at third, had another caught stealing at second and another thrown out at the plate while trying to score on a wild pitch.

Waipahu, meanwhile, made the most of every opportunity.

Jonell Ventura scored on an error in the first and Chaz Ramos gave Waipahu a 2-0 lead in the third when advancing around the bases on two wild pitches and another Kailua error. Crisostomo's two-run double highlighted a three-run fourth that broke open the game for the Marauders.

Kailua		000	000	0--0	2	2
Waipahu		101	300	x--5	7	2

Jonah Mokulehua, David Horswill and Kawika Kaita; Jerome Williams and Cedric Crisostomo.

WP--Williams. LP--Mokulehua.

Leading hitters--Kai: none. Waip: Jerome Williams 2b, run; Cedric Crisostomo 2b, 2 RBI, run; Chaz Ramos 2b, RBI, run.

HHSAA STATE BASEBALL At Rainbow Stadium Today's games Waiakea (11-3) vs. Aiea (10-4), 9:15 a.m. Pearl City (11-3) vs. Kauai (9-5), 11:30 a.m. Hilo (12-1) vs. Waipahu (10-4), 2 p.m. Mid-Pacific (15-7) vs. Baldwin (13-5), 4:30 p.m. Molokai (15-2) vs. Iolani (16-5), 7 p.m. Yesterday's results Baldwin 7, Waiakea 2 Kauai 4, Aiea 1 Iolani 9, Mililani 1 Waipahu 5, Kailua 0

Iolani 9, Mililani 1

In a game of breaks, the Raiders (16-5) seemingly got them all and the Trojans (9-6) ended up with heartbreak.

In the bottom of the fourth, Mililani had the bases loaded but got only one run when the Raiders turned their fourth error of the inning into an inning-ending double play. Half an inning later, Iolani scored five runs in the top of the fifth, helped by four Trojan errors, to break open the game.

"You get breaks here and there and that's just the way it goes," said Iolani coach Dean Yonamine. "In our last three games (all losses to Mid-Pacific during the ILH playoffs), we got no breaks. Tonight, we got a few, the momentum swings, we get on a roll and that's how you win."

Kainoa Fong survived a shaky start to finish with a three hitter. He struck out four.

Iolani		012	051	0--9	13	4
Mililani	000	100	0--1	3	3

Kanoa Fong and Travis Mitsuda; Keola Casmina, Wade Szameitat (3), Jefferey Arizumi (6) and Bryce Watanabe.

WP--Fong. LP--Casmina.

Leading hitters--Iol: Doug Jackson 3-5, 2 2b, 2 RBI, run; Brent Wong 2-4, 2 RBI, run; Derek Whit 2-3, 2b, RBI, run; Tyler Kimura 3-3, 3b, 2 runs; Jason Teruya 2 RBI. Mil: None.

Baldwin 7, Waiakea 2

The Bears (13-5) used a four-run second and a seven-hit performance by Tyson Higa to down the Warriors (11-3).

Higa went 6 innings, striking out seven. Scott Kaneshina went 2- for-3, driving in one run and scoring another.

Waiakea		000	002	0--2	7	1
Baldwin		040	102	x--7	9	2

Chad Okumoto, Eric Tao (2), Greg Kagawa (4) and Chad Watanabe; Tyson Higa, Keoni Aloy (7) and Kurt Suzuki.

WP--Higa. LP--Okumoto.

Leading hitters--Waia: Michael Patterson 2-3. Bald: Davin Morita, 2-3, run; Scott Kaneshina 2-3, RBI, run.

Kauai 4, Aiea 1

Scott Oshima tossed a six-hitter and the Red Raiders scored single runs in four innings to top Na Alii.

Kauai's runs came on a squeeze play, a sacrifice fly, a wild pitch and a steal of home.

Aiea		000	100	0--1	6	2
Kauai		011	101	x--4	6	1

Kyle Correa and Kirk Powell; Scott Oshima and Kwinton Estacio.

WP--Oshima. LP--Correa.

Leading hitters--Aiea: Kyle Correa 2-3, 2b, run. Kau: Jason Koga 2-3.