Kamaka, Mililani wrap up title
POSTED: Saturday, May 16, 2009
Courtney Senas didn't have to carry the load, after all.
The reigning Star-Bulletin player of the year scored the tying run in the third inning and Mililani added two more in the bottom of the fifth en route to a 6-2 win over Roosevelt in the Division I final of the DataHouse/HHSAA Softball State Championships before a capacity crowd at Rainbow Wahine Softball Stadium.
The stellar pitching of southpaw Kishti Kamaka kept the Trojans in title contention. Kamaka won all four of her starts and was on point last night, permitting two unearned runs in the second inning.
The Trojans (16-3) captured their second state crown and the first under coach Rose Antonio.
“;I'm very, very happy. I'm proud of my kids,”; Antonio said.
They did it by rallying past Roosevelt, a team that beat Mililani in last week's Oahu Interscholastic Association Red Conference final.
Senas came into the game hitting .750 in the state tourney and started the Trojans off with an RBI single in the first inning.
Roosevelt went ahead 2-1 in the third. Those runs came on a pop-up by Kathleen Nakata that fell out of the glove of a hustling Senas in shallow left field.
“;I think I squeezed my glove too early,”; she said.
Down 2-1, Mililani answered in the third with a line-drive single up the middle that brought Senas home.
The Trojans went ahead in the fifth when Kamaka stroked an opposite-field single to right, bringing Senas home from second base.
After a single by Glenelle Nitta, Jaime Robinson's grounder to short took a bad hop for an infield single, and courtesy runner Toni Baysa scored to give Mililani a 4-2 lead.
In the sixth, Rebecca Lee slid home under the tag when the throw home from short on a fielder's choice play was high. Nitta then drove in Mililani's sixth run with a bases-loaded groundout to third.
Kamaka, a tough lefty whose sweeping breaking pitches had the Rough Riders guessing—a wide strike zone didn't hurt—was unflappable. She won the battle with her counterpart, Roosevelt ace and slugger Lianne Bajarin. The left-handed clean-up hitter struggled against Kamaka from early on, when breaking balls off the plate were called strikes. That forced Bajarin and the rest of the Rough Riders to look outside more than usual.
“;I just adjusted to what he called and our (pitching) coach (Joe Lee) made all the calls,”; Kamaka said.
Mililani 6, Roosevelt 2
| Roosevelt | AB | R | H | BI | Mililani | AB | R | H | BI |
| Tanabe ss | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Oshiro 2b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Leong 3b | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | Lee c | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Pitoy 2b | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Senas ss | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Bajarin p | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Aiwohi cf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Frank 1b | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Kamaka p | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Nakata rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Baysa pr | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Takakawa c | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Nitta rf | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| Kapea cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Robinson dh | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| Murakami lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Garces | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Rodrigues lf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| Totals | 29 | 2 | 7 | 0 | Totals | 27 | 6 | 11 | 5 |
| Roosevelt | 002 | 000 | 0 | — | 2 | 7 | 2 |
| Mililani | 101 | 022 | x | — | 6 | 11 | 2 |
E—Tanabe; Murakami; Lee; Senas. DP—Mililani 1. LOB—Roosevelt 9; Millani 10. 2B—Tanabe. HBP—Nakata; Murakami; Oshiro. SH—Aiwohi 2; Kamaka; Rodrigues.
| Roosevelt | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Bajarin (L, 2-1) | 6 | 11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 7 |
| Mililani | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Kamaka (W, 4-0) | 7 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 |
Umpires—Wayne Parent (Plate); John Park (First); Paul Neuzil (Second); Jed Sasaki (Third).
T—1:51. A—N/A.
