[ ILH BASEBALL ]
Kuroda comes to the
rescue for Mid-Pacific
Sometimes it's as simple as leaving it to Harry.
Coach Dunn Muramaru's Mid-Pacific baseball team was in a precarious situation early in last night's Interscholastic League of Honolulu championship game, so he didn't hesitate pinning the title hopes on senior right-hander Harrison Kuroda.
The plan worked as Kuroda pitched six shutout, one-hit innings in relief of starter Conan Young and the Owls edged Punahou 3-1 in front of 713 at Aloha Stadium.
Muramaru's only real hesitation was when he picked Young, a junior, to start over Kuroda, his rested senior ace.
"Conan was our best pitcher down the stretch," said Muramaru, whose Owls captured their first league title since 2001. "I know you're supposed to go with your ace, but I think I overworked Harry a little bit in the middle of the season. It almost backfired."
MPI improved to 16-5 and clinched the league's only guaranteed berth at next week's state tournament. Punahou (15-6), which was shooting for its first ILH crown since 1994, plays Lahainaluna Saturday at Maui's Iron Maehara Stadium in a state tournament play-in game.
Last night's contest followed the same pattern these two teams established against each other in the regular season. MPI won the first game 2-1, but Punahou came back to take the second game by the same score. The teams didn't meet in the league's recently completed double-elimination tournament.
Kuroda's dominant nine-strikeout performance started in the second inning with runners on the corners. Kasey Ko, who boomed a Young pitch off the wall 360 feet to left center for a double, scored Punahou's only run for a 1-all tie when Kuroda got Landon Nakata to ground into a double play.
Nakata was the first of 16 batters in a row that went down to Kuroda's right arm before Ko singled with two outs in the seventh.
"I just missed my spot against Ko, who is one of the best hitters in the league," said Kuroda, who dedicated the victory to his grandfather, Roland Char, who died last month. "When you make mistakes, good hitters capitalize, but it was only one hit."
Kuroda struck out the side in the fourth and sixth, but he was still in a tie game until MPI's Brenton Endo singled and scored the winning run on a Punahou error in the fourth. In the seventh, Endo beat out a single and scored the final run on Chris Goya's fielder's choice.
"These players are just awesome," Muramaru said about his championship squad. "They just played hard and found ways to win. It's enjoyable to coach these guys because they're such good kids."
Kuroda credited teamwork and belief in teammates.
"Coach told us that we have to think of it as you're dangling off a bridge holding a rope and that you've got to believe that anyone on this team can be trusted to make sure you don't fall -- to believe that they've got your back."
Ryan Asato tripled and scored on Kuroda's groundout for a 1-0 Owls lead in the bottom of the first.
Ko said the Buffanblu won't get down because of the loss.
"It's not over yet," he said. "Coach (Eric Kadooka) told us after the game that sometimes it just doesn't happen for you and that we played well."
Kadooka, whose team won the double-elimination tournament on Monday to set up the showdown with regular-season champ MPI, looked skyward and asked, "What does it take? We went 11-3 (in the regular season) and won the tournament and now we're flying to Maui. It's frustrating, but we know we can deal with it and we'll definitely battle on Maui. Kuroda was tough to overcome. He was the difference."
At Aloha Stadium
Punahou (15-6) 010 000 0 -- 1 5 2 Mid-Pacific (16-5) 100 101 x -- 3 7 0 Kurt Fujitani, Kurt Komatsubara (3), Jared Pate (5) and Robert Kurisu; Conan Young, Harrison Kuroda (2) and Kip Masuda. W-Kuroda. L- Komatsubara.
Leading hitters--Pun: Kasey Ko 2-3, 2b. MPI: Ryan Asato 3b, Kuroda RBI, Brenton Endo 2-2, Chris Goya RBI.