Monday, May 21, 2001
Perhaps it was the alignment of the planets or the work of the baseball gods. Saturday night's twin comebacks at Aloha and Rainbow Stadiums were enough to make even skeptical observers wonder if a higher power wasn't involved. Surfriders’ win
By Jason Kaneshiro
seems heaven-sent
Star-BulletinIn Manoa, University of Hawaii players and fans bid a fond aloha to retiring coach Les Murakami. His Rainbows did him proud by rallying for seven runs in the bottom of the ninth to beat the University of Hawaii-Hilo's Vulcans, 9-8, in the their season finale.
Meanwhile at Aloha Stadium, Kailua coach Corey Ishigo (who played four seasons for Murakami at UH) watched his team also rally for seven runs to beat Mid-Pacific, 9-8, for the Wally Yonamine Foundation state high school baseball championship.
And while Murakami's No. 11 was retired at UH, Kailua's Kamaile Santos, who wears the same number, was on the mound for the Surfriders earning his second win of the state tournament.
The winning runs at each park crossed the plate within minutes of each other.
"One of my good friends is (UH first-baseman) Danny Kimura," Ishigo said. "He came over last night and he told me the same thing happened."
While Ishigo said he would have liked to have seen the farewell ceremony for Murakami, he was busy fashioning a tribute of his own by guiding Kailua to its first state title since 1969. The championship was also the first for an Oahu Interscholastic Association school since Castle won the baseball title in 1994.
And a day later the victory in the state tournament, which was nearly wiped out by the teachers strike this spring, seemed even more remarkable to the third-year coach.
"It's still kind of shocking to me that we came back like that against a good team like Mid-Pac," Ishigo said.
Due to the compressed tournament schedule, Kailua took the field against Mid-Pacific less than an hour after beating St. Joseph's in the semifinals, while MPI had waited more than four hours after beating Moanalua.
The outlook was pretty glum for the Surfriders after they committed five errors leading to five unearned runs, as the Owls built their lead over the first four innings. After Kailua scored two runs in the first inning, MPI relief pitcher Patrick McGuigan limited the Surfriders to three hits over the next four innings.
But as his team prepared for its turn at bat in the bottom of the sixth, Ishigo used a lesson in recent history to fire up his club.
"In the sixth, our coach picked us up and we felt good again and we felt we could win no matter what," said Kailua first-baseman Jarid Kawamoto. "He said Molokai was in the same position last year, because they were down six in the sixth against Kamehameha and they came back and won."
The bottom third of Kailua's order led off the inning with singles. Travis Hayashida, Chris Ching and tournament MVP Kawika Kekaula got into the act with run-scoring singles to cut Mid-Pacific's lead to 6-5.
MPI coach Dunn Muramaru then summoned ace Ricky Bauer from the bullpen. But Bauer, who pitched a complete game Friday against Pearl City, walked his first batter, then gave up a single to Cody Texiera-Vickery, who had started the rally with a lead-off hit, to score Jonathan Tabar with the tying run.
"That's how we've been this year, we've been able to put up some runs in a hurry," Ishigo said.
Bauer got out of the jam with no further damage, and the Owls threatened to score in the top of the seventh. But they were held off the scoreboard by Santos, who himself had thrown a complete game 24 hours earlier against Kauai. While his final line wasn't eye-popping -- seven hits, a walk and two strikeouts in 423 innings -- he did enough to keep the Surfriders in the game.
"He's always said he's a gamer and he wants the ball in the big games, and I know for sure now that his words are true," Ishigo said. "He went seven innings (Friday) and when we were at the school he said, 'Coach, I'll pitch whenever I have to to win.' He's a great team player and he did what he had to do."
Kailua's Mike Cathcart led off the bottom of the seventh by reaching first on an error and moving to second on a sacrifice. After a walk, a single and a pop-out, Kawamoto stepped into the batter's box.
Kawamoto lined an 0-1 pitch into center field to score Cathcart with the game-winner.
"The strike (Bauer) threw was a fastball and I wasn't ready for it," Kawamoto said after the game, still clutching the bat responsible for the biggest hit of his life. "So I was thinking fastball on the next pitch."
And as the home team dugouts exploded in celebration in Halawa and Manoa, somewhere even the baseball gods had to marvel at the scene.
"I think that just showed what our team is like," Ishigo said. "Never giving up, never quitting no matter how tough the conditions are."
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