By KEVIN JAKAHI
By KEVIN JAKAHI
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Na Koa Ikaika Maui right-hander Jesse Smith produced another gem, and made sure the Hawaii Stars didn’t shine in a game the home team desperately needed to keep its playoff hopes on life support.
Smith fired seven strong innings, and Maui collected enough well-placed hits to leap past the Stars 6-1 in a North American Baseball League game on Monday night at Wong Stadium, holding Hawaii five games back of the front-running San Rafael Pacifics.
Fortunately for Hawaii, the Sonoma County Grapes beat the Pacifics 5-4 on Monday. Na Koa is just three games back. Maui and Hawaii also play a regular-season, ending six-game series on the Valley Isle next week.
The Stars (21-22) and Na Koa (26-23) play the second game of a six-game series at 5:35 p.m. today at Wong. Dallas Mahan (0-6, 3.46 ERA) is scheduled to start for Hawaii. It is Japanese Chamber night with a meet and greet with Maui pitchers Eri Yoshida and Yoshihiro Doi (formerly with the Seibu Lions and Baltimore Orioles). Matt Walker (3-3, 3.54 ERA) is scheduled to start for Maui.
The game started at 6:15 p.m. because the Maui coaching staff and a few players ran into a ticket snafu at Kahului Airport. They eventually made it to the ballpark, and there were no other delays, traffic jams or inconvenient episodes, and Hawaii’s last homestand was off and running.
Hawaii’s new guy, right fielder Reggie York making his first start, sparked his comrades to a 1-0 lead in the second inning with his hustle. He beat out a high chopper to second for an infield single, moving Anthony Lopez, who earlier singled, to third.
Then Smith threw a wide fastball that bounced off catcher Nick Valdez’ glove for a passed ball, scoring Lopez. York, in tune with his good first impression, raced from first to third. However, he was stranded 90 feet away from home plate after Anthony Williams hit into a groundout.
That was pretty much Hawaii’s only highlight. York batted 1 for 4. Matt Hibbert, Keoni Manago and Lopez each had the other singles.
York, from Fort Worth, Texas, was signed to fill in for Steve Tedesco, riding a 17-game hitting streak and still out with a sore right shoulder suffered on a diving catch. In 2011, York played at Kansas Wesleyan, an NAIA school, where he batted .327 with two homers and 18 RBIs in 37 games.
However, Maui hit for accuracy rather than power to scratch a pair of runs off Loeffler, who entered the game 2-0 against Na Koa, in the fourth, an inning that confirmed an old pitching philosophy: allow the leadoff man on and that usually spells trouble.
Loeffler plunked Valdez with a slow-moving breaking ball; he smartly turned his back, instead of counting to 10 and jumping out of the way. Then Na Koa took out a set of golf clubs, and went to work on the former UH-Hilo pitcher, employing three well-placed singles, paper-cutting rather than pummeling to score runs.
Three batters later, Mark Okano hit a slicing RBI single to right center field — the type of controlled cut shot once owned by Tiger Woods to win 14 majors. Joe Kala’s seeing-eye single (similar to any duffer’s worm killer) past second base scored Chema Sanchez, who earlier wedged a single to left field, for a 2-1 lead.
Meanwhile, Smith, a sixth-round draft pick of the Anaheim Angels in 2003, gave the Stars absolutely nothing, no harmful mistakes over the heart of the plate, throwing only darts and living up to his billing as one of the best aces in the league.
In his last four starts, the 6-foot-2 right-hander went 3-0 and surrendered one earned run in 31 innings. That’s a 0.29 ERA. In that stretch of dominance, Smith, who hails from the rectangular state of Nebraska, yielded only 11 hits and five walks, and whiffed 22 — definitely Cy Young award numbers if the NABL had such a distinction.
Smith (7-2, 1.52 ERA) gave up an unearned run in seven innings. He followed recent history and was brilliant again, with four hits, all singles, and two walks, with seven strikeouts.
For Loeffler, the paper cuts continued in the sixth and seventh innings. Na Koa Ikaika Maui (the Warriors of Maui) produced a double in each inning, but both bounced off outfielders, not exactly rollicking extra-basehits, sending Hawaii’s ace off to the showers in a frustrating final home start.
In his first loss at home, Loeffler (6-2, 4.04 ERA) went seven innings, gave up six runs on nine hits, two walks, two hit batters, and struck out seven. He never retired the side in order, and allowed the leadoff hitter to reach four times.
In the sixth, after Sanchez was beaned by a floating curveball and Okano walked, Waylen Sing Chow lofted a sinking fly ball to left that bounced off a sliding Manago, cracking the door open for two insurance runs and a 4-1 cushion.
Maui padded the lead to 6-1 the next inning when Sanchez had an RBI double that bounced off York. Then Mochizuki hit a single up the middle just hard enough to escape the diving attempt of second baseman Williams for another run.
Sing Chow went 2 for 4 with two RBIs, Sanchez batted 2 for 3 and Mochizuki was 2 for 5.
Hawaii’s Ryan Screnar pitched two scoreless innings. Maui reliever Josh Larson, a former Hawaii Star, was his equal, also tossing two scoreless innings, and complementing Smith’s work to outshine the Stars.
Maui 000 202 200 — 6 9 0
Hawaii 010 000 000 — 1 4 0