|
Awana, Moses form DON'T tell Dane Awana and Cid Moses they can't lead the Waianae baseball team to the top of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Western Division standings.
Waianae’s Dynamic Duo
The Seariders' ace pitchers
are 2 reasons Waianae
is undefeated at 5-0By Jason Kaneshiro
Actually, go ahead and tell them. They probably won't believe you anyway.
The aces of the Waianae pitching staff have the Seariders contending for the division title this season, and the self-assurance they bring to the mound is starting to rub off on their teammates.
"They're really confident, so they keep their composure no matter what, and it gives us a lot of confidence," Waianae catcher Michael Ferreira said.
Waianae is 5-0 entering the toughest stretch of its regular-season schedule. The Seariders play at Mililani at 4 p.m. today and host Nanakuli on Saturday. They also have games with Campbell and division leader Aiea on deck.
"We were waiting for the hard teams, now we're just taking it one game at a time," Moses said after closing out Waianae's 8-2 win over Pearl City last Saturday.
Awana, a left-hander, and Moses, a righty, have sparked the Seariders' hot start. Waianae entered the week having surrendered a league-low 16 hits in its first five games.
Awana opened the season by striking out 13 batters in a two-hit performance against Leilehua.
Moses followed by throwing a no-hitter in a 3-0 victory over Waipahu on April 3. Two days later, Awana ran Waianae's streak of no-hit innings to 13 and struck out 14 in a 7-2 win against Waipahu.
Moses threw five strong innings against Waialua, but didn't figure in the decision as the Bulldogs rallied to send the game into extra innings before Waianae prevailed 9-6.
Last Saturday, the seniors teamed up to defeat Pearl City.
Awana struck out three in five innings, while Moses retired six of the seven batters he faced, striking our four, to end the game.
"It helps them if one guy has a good start the next guy wants to have a good start," Waianae coach Glenn Tokunaga said. "They always want to be the guy with the ball. If they have the ball they're confident that they're going to get ahead of the hitters and the offense is going to come through for them."
Awana has baffled hitters with a fastball in the mid-80s that runs away from right-handed hitters, a curveball and change-up.
"(Dane's) ball moves a lot, so it's hard for the batters to see it," Ferreira said.
Moses also throws three pitches, with his fastball just a tad slower than Awana's.
"I was just trying to throw them off and keep them off-balance," Moses said after Saturday's relief performance. "I don't throw as fast as Dane, so I was throwing some curves and change-ups and trying to keep them guessing."
While both guys revel in bringing the heat, both rely on their off-speed pitches to keep batters from sitting on the fastball.
"That's the key for us," Tokunaga said. "If they can get their breaking stuff over, the fastball looks a lot faster."
Awana (3-0) and Moses (1-0) head a deep Waianae pitching staff. The Seariders have also benefited from quality relief outings from senior Kalani Viernes and juniors Calvin Uyechi and Chad Rodrigues (1-0).
And the confidence the starters bring to the mound have their teammates believing they have a chance to win every time they take the ball.
"I think the kids feel that way," Tokunaga said.
"Anytime we show up we're going to be right in the game. We've talked to them about how hard it is to win ballgames and you have to come out every day and play hard and work hard at practice. They've been coming around to that, responding to what we're trying to get across to them."
Said shortstop Chevy Teves: "When they're in their zone, they're in their zone and it's hard to break through."
Hawaii School Web Sites
