Raiders keep it together
against Crusaders
Coach Dean Yonamine had been down this road before, but Jarvis Nohara made sure the Iolani baseball team didn't fumble away a late-inning lead yet again.
Up 5-0 heading into the top of the seventh inning, the Raiders gave up four runs before Nohara induced Sheldon Santiago to bounce out to short with the bases loaded to help host Iolani upset No. 5 Saint Louis 5-4 yesterday in Interscholastic League of Honolulu baseball.
In the previous meeting between the two teams, the Raiders (8-9-1) held a 5-2 lead late before the Crusaders (11-7) put together a late rally to come from behind for the win. Fortunately for Iolani, yesterday was a different story.
"That's how the games are in this league," Yonamine said of yesterday's matchup. "For these kids to work as hard as they do, it's nice for them to get a win like this one."
Ian Mopas started the game for the Raiders and had things on cruise control, giving up only two hits over the first six innings. But the senior ran into control problems in the seventh, walking two and giving up two hits before being replaced by Nohara.
"I wanted to finish it, but I believe in my teammates and I have faith in them that they will get the job done," Mopas said.
Nohara let the Crusaders get as close to tying the game as they could, walking two batters and hitting another to force in two more runs that cut the lead to one before finally retiring Santiago for the game's final out.
"They're primarily a right-handed lineup, so we went with the right-hander (Nohara)," Yonamine said. "He's our Mr. Utility Guy and doesn't get a lot of bullpen time, but we saw he was starting to get his rhythm going so we stuck with him."
Mopas finished one out short of a complete game, giving up just four hits and three earned runs in six and two-thirds innings, while striking out six.
"He was really mixing up his pitches well and getting them over the plate for strikes," Yonamine said. "Normally, we might have taken him out sooner because his pitch-count was way up there, but we knew this might be his last game and wanted to give him a chance to go the distance."
The win was the second for Iolani in its last five games as it tries to finish with a winning record -- a feat it couldn't accomplish last year. The Crusaders meanwhile have lost two straight after a three-game winning streak.
"This has to do more with me than the players," Crusaders coach Scott Paiva said. "We'd like to finish on a positive note, but I just can't seem to get these kids ready to play. I don't want them to keep falling off the face of the earth, so we'll fight back as best we can."
Gavin Mendez picked up the loss for the Crusaders.
At Iolani Field
| Saint Louis (11-7) | 000 | 000 | 4 | -- | 4 | 4 | 0 |
| Iolani (8-9-1) | 000 | 023 | x | -- | 5 | 6 | 1 |
Leading hitters--StL: Cody Barrett 2-3; Zablan 2b. Iol: Greg Hackler 2-3; Case Miyahira 3b; Kyson Morikuni 2b.
No. 1 Punahou 5, Damien 1
Scott Hiramoto pitched a four-hitter as the Buffanblu cruised past the Monarchs.
Duncan Ebert had two hits to lead Damien.
At Ala Wai Field
| Punahou (16-1-1) | 100 | 300 | 1 | -- | 5 | 7 | 2 |
| Damien (3-15) | 000 | 010 | 0 | -- | 1 | 4 | 5 |
Leading hitters--Pun: Matthew Solomona 2b. Dam: Ebert 2-3.
No. 2 Kamehameha 11, Pac-Five 4
Makana Kitamura's triple in the bottom of the fourth inning drove home the go-ahead run as the Warriors defeated the Wolfpack.
Nick Freitas hit two triples, drove in four runs and scored three times in the win. Ronel Trias drove in two runs in the loss.
At Central Oahu Regional Park
| Pac-Five (2-16) | 021 | 001 | 0 | -- | 4 | 8 | 3 |
| Kamehameha (15-3) | 201 | 224 | x | -- | 11 | 10 | 1 |
Leading hitters--Pac: Ronel Trias 2b, 2 RBIs; Kama Moises 2-4; Chilcote 2-3; Tony Onitsuka 2b, RBI; Miyamoto 2b. Kam: Nick Freitas 2-3, 2 3bs, 3 runs, 4 RBIs; Aaron Nichols 2-4, 2b, 3 runs; Kam 2-4, RBI; Makana Kitamura 3b, RBI.
No. 4 Mid-Pacific 3, Maryknoll 1
Conan Young tossed three innings out of shutout ball, giving up one hit and striking out three to lead the Owls past the Spartans.
Maryknoll took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on Brett Ikei's solo home run off Jared Hara.
At Ala Wai Field
| Mid-Pacific (13-5) | 001 | 010 | 1 | -- | 3 | 8 | 2 |
| Maryknoll (3-15) | 100 | 000 | 0 | -- | 1 | 4 | 2 |
Leading hitters--MPI: Adam Tamashiro 2-4, 2b; Masuda 2-4; Reece Uyeno 2-3, 2b. Mryk: Brett Ikei solo HR.
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