[ HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL ]
Mid-Pacific pitcher Harrison Kuroda posted a 1.90 ERA and .412 batting average to lead the Owls to an ILH championship.
Kuroda carried
Mid-Pac to finalHis success for the entire season
lands him on the first team,
while Punahou places four
A funny thing happened to Harrison Kuroda in the state championship game.
He lost.
Not that Kuroda always wins, but he pulled through so many times for Mid-Pacific during the season that it started to seem like he was destined to do it again when it mattered most.
Even though Kuroda was strapped with the loss, his gutsy performances throughout the year earned him a spot on the Star-Bulletin's All-State first team.
Kuroda finished with a 1.90 ERA, and he was also one of the Owls' leading hitters with a .412 batting average.
He joins player of the year Jared Pate of Punahou and Myles Ioane of Waiakea as the three first-team pitchers.
Ioane finished his second fantastic undefeated season with an ERA under 1.00 on the Big Island.
The Owls' Randy Rundgren is the first-team shortstop.
"He was one of the biggest reasons why our pitching staff did as well as it did," MPI coach Dunn Muramaru said. "He doesn't make errors in big situations and hardly ever made an error with two outs."
Rundgren is the younger brother of minor leaguer Rex Rundgren, who also starred for the Owls.
Ioane and Rundgren were two of the five All-State players or honorable mentions taken in the Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft this month.
In addition to Pate, three other Punahou players made the first team -- sluggers Kasey Ko at first base, Michael Lam at second base and Mark Veneri as a designated hitter.
All three hit higher than .350, led by Ko at .420.
Lam showed defensive prowess throughout and came on strong with late-season clutch hitting, while Veneri hit two home runs and drove in a team-high 24 runs.
Aiea and Kamehameha placed two apiece on the 13-player first team, while Leilehua and Kauai had one each.
Catcher Aaron Asher and outfielder Dylan Libadisos made it from Na Alii, while outfielders Travis Young and Nick Freitas were picked from the Warriors.
Asher, known for his defensive capabilities as well as his potent bat, barely beat out Waiakea's Avery Kagawa for first-team honors. Kagawa, who hits for power, was a solid second-team pick.
Libadisos batted third and delivered for Aiea in key situations, and he had an accurate arm from center field.
Freitas batted .410 and Young hit at a .398 clip.
Spencer Omalza, the Oahu Interscholastic Association West Division Player of the Year, and Kirby Yates, the Kauai Interscholastic Federation Player of the Year, were the "do-it-all" kind.
Omalza was the Mules' top pitcher who also impressed at shortstop and by carrying a big stick at the plate.
Yates, the brother of New York Mets farmhand Tyler Yates, struck out 10 in a 1-0 state tourney loss to Hilo. He also showed his smooth swing at the states, hitting the gaps several times at Murakami Stadium.
Two other Waiakea players -- third baseman Matt Patterson and pitcher Ronnie Loeffler -- were chosen for the second team.
Saint Louis also made a respectable showing, with second baseman Johnny Gentry on the second team and four others on the third team.
In a breakdown by league, the three teams were made up of 16 players from the ILH, 14 from the OIA, four from Maui, four from the Big Island and one from Kauai.
