[BASEBALL]

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Hardtke baserunner Bobby Hawthorne slid into second base yesterday as Waves infielder Cy Donald awaited the throw.

Waves are Best
of the West

Despite a new name, the Hawaii team
wins its third tournament title

---

By Jason Kaneshiro
jkaneshiro@starbulletin.com

The Hawaii Waves captured the Best of the West Baseball Classic championship despite breaking one of the game's sacred rules -- never mess with a winning streak.

The team won the last two tournament titles as West Oahu, but changed the name of the team this summer. Still, the Waves went 6-0 in the 10th annual tournament and beat Hardtke World of Baseball of California 4-2 in yesterday's final at Aloha Stadium.

"It's easy to win it once, but we've done it three times so I give a lot of credit to our players," Hawaii coach Blane Muraoka said. "It's not really (the coaches), we just write in the lineup. It's a tribute to the programs they came from."

A pair of Mililani graduates played key roles in the Waves' roll through the tournament for players 19 and under.

Second baseman Cy Donald, a 2001 graduate, was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player after going 10-for-15 at the plate.

Adam Inaba, who picked up his Mililani diploma this year, followed up a one-hitter earlier in the week with three innings of shutout relief yesterday to earn a save and outstanding pitcher honors.

"I felt good and I was hitting all my spots," Inaba said. "I just had to get ahead and start mixing it up and throw junk.

GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM Roosevelt graduate Chris Mols earned the win for the Hawaii Waves in yesterday's Best of the West final at Aloha Stadium.

"I was looking forward to (playing in the Best of the West) this year," he added. "It's always fun to play these teams from the mainland and see how good you can be."

Roosevelt graduate Chris Mols struck out three and picked up the win for the Waves yesterday.

Hardtke starter Mike Schilling struck out five and retired the last 10 hitters he faced in a complete-game performance. But the team from San Jose couldn't overcome Hawaii's four-run outburst in the bottom of the third.

"They're such a good ballclub, they don't make mistakes," said Hardtke coach Terry Hardtke. "We would have to play a perfect game in order to beat them and we obviously weren't able to do that."

Hardtke took the lead in the top of the third on Aaron Bates' RBI triple to right. Bates later scored on the back end of a delayed steal to give the team a 2-0 lead.

Vance Otake singled to open the Hawaii half of the inning and scored on Donald's double to left. A single by Kevin Kahn plated Donald with the tying run and Hawaii took the lead on a bases-loaded walk to Alika Kuraoka. Schilling then hit Travis McGaughy to bring home Kahn with the Waves' fourth run.

"For us, one through nine could bang," Muraoka said. "It didn't matter if it was seven, eight, nine coming up or three, four, five, I felt we could score at any time."

Inaba relieved Mols in the fifth and kept Hardtke off balance to preserve the win.

Terry Hardtke was ejected before the bottom of the fifth after complaining about the amount of time Schilling was given to warm up. But he left the stadium with a positive feeling about his team's first appearance in the tournament.

"It's a great tournament, good competition," he said. "I felt our team got better as we went through the competition, and it was a great opportunity to play (Hawaii) twice. We came out here to come to a great place and get good competition and being in the championship game was a bonus."

Hardtke's Tim O'Brien was named the Outstanding Hitter of the tournament.

Along with recent local high school graduates, the Waves featured several players who returned after a year away at college. Donald, McGaughy (Iolani), Royce Fukuroku (Maui) and Blaine Umeda (Iolani) played at San Francisco this spring. Jordan Takaki (Punahou) attends USC. Kyle Yanabu (Mid-Pacific) is at Washington and Brian Terayama (Mid-Pacific) attends the University of the Pacific. Kahn just completed his freshman year at Virginia Tech.

"It was just a good way to get them together," said Muraoka, a Hawaii Pacific pitcher during the season. "It's just to play with guys they played against in the regular season."

At Aloha Stadium

Hardtke Baseball	002	000	0	--	2	4	1
Hawaii Waves	004000	x	--	4	3	0

Mike Schilling and Aaron Bates. Chris Mols, Adam Inaba (5) and Vance Otake, Jay Baptista (5). W--Mols. L--Schilling. S--Inaba.

Leading hitters--Hardtke: Bates 3b, RBI; Matt Mills 2-3. Hawaii: Cy Donald 2b, RBI.

Third place
Hurricanes (Wash.) 5, Rincon Valley (Calif.) 3

Fifth place
Storm (Ohio) 6, Leeward 4

Seventh place
Phoenix (Ariz.) 11, Baseball Factory (Md.) 5