The lights went out last night for 14 minutes at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium, adding yet another delay to the already rain-plagued state high school softball championship tournament. Mililani advances
to semisBy Cindy Luis
cluis@starbulletin.comIt took unseeded Mililani 18 minutes to pull the plug on third-seeded Baldwin in a quarterfinal contest. The Trojans scored four runs on bases-loaded walks in the bottom of the third and rode the combined five-hit pitching effort of senior Miki Asamura and freshman Dana Lee for an 8-2 victory.
The win puts Mililiani (14-1) into tonight's 8 p.m. semifinal against No. 2 Kamehameha (16-2). In the first championship semifinal, top-seeded Kailua (14-0) faces unseeded Waiakea (11-2) at 6 p.m.
That would be "weather permitting." That was the watchword yesterday with rain washing out the four scheduled games; the Mililani-Baldwin game was a continuation of Thursday's contest postponed by rain after half an inning with Baldwin going down in order.
The grounds crew worked nearly three hours to preserve the skin field, helped by tarp and blue cinder. The solo game was delayed by another five minutes due to a late-arriving umpire.
The Bears manufactured the game's first run, using a walk, a sacrifice bunt and a wild pitch to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the second. Baldwin pitcher Sabrina Mindoro was just delivering the first pitch of the bottom of the third to Mililani's Charity Senas when a power outage hit the entire lower campus.
It briefly knocked out the lights at softball, Les Murakami Stadium, the Stan Sheriff Center and Gateway Dorms. It took some 14 minutes for the halogen lights to come back on for softball, with another four minutes to get the teams warmed up and back on the field.
That's when things heated up for the Trojans. Senas singled through short with Britney Shimamoto beating out a bunt for a single. Mindoro then threw eight straight balls, first to Asamura to load the bases and then Thiffany Anguay-Kalau, to force in Senas to tie it at 1-1.
One out later, Stephanie Lum walked on four balls, forcing in Shimamoto to put the Trojans ahead for good. A walk to Erika Au with two outs scored Anguay-Kalau, with another walk to Casey Sugihara scoring Lum for a 4-0 lead.
The damage could have been worse except for a diving stop by second baseman Kristi Ah Yen which saved two runs. A prone Ah Yen converted Senas' hard grounder into a shovel shot to shortstop Sarmiento to get Sugihara at second and end the inning.
The Bears came back with a run in the fifth when Zoie Sevilla scored on a fielder's choice to pull Baldwin to 4-2. The Trojans pulled away with four runs in their final three at-bats, taking advantage of six Baldwin errors and RBI-singles from Sandy Nakamura and Christal Chong.
Baldwin (14-4) will take on Kapolei (12-4) at 4 p.m. The first scheduled consolation game is Hilo (10-2) vs. Castle (10-4) at noon, followed by Lahainaluna (14-5) against Waimea (10-3) at 2 p.m.
State softball
All games at Rainbow Wahine Softball StadiumSEEDED TEAMS
1. Kailua (14-0),
2. Kamehameha (16-2),
3. Baldwin (14-4),
4. Waimea (10-3).WEDNESDAY
Lahainaluna 4, Leilehua 2
Kapolei 3, Hilo 0
Waiakea 3, Punahou 2
Mililani 4, Castle 2THURSDAY
Leilehua 3, Punahou 0
Waiakea 6, Waimea 2
Kailua 12, Lahainaluna 0
Kamehameha 9, Kapolei 1YESTERDAY
Mililani 8, Baldwin 2TODAY
Game 10: Hilo vs. Castle, noon
Game 11: Waimea vs. Lahainaluna, 2 p.m.
Game 12: Kapolei vs. Baldwin, 4 p.m.
Game 13: Waiakea vs. Kailua, 6 p.m.
Game 14: Kamehameha vs. Mililani, 8 p.m.TOMORROW
Game 15: Leilehua vs. Game 10 loser, 2 p.m.
Game 16: Winners of Games 10 and 11, 4 p.m.
Game 17: Losers of Games 13 and 14, 6 p.m.
Game 18: Winners of Games 13 and 14, 8 p.m.
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