KEALAKEKUA — Playing in an extremely rare away game at its home park, Konawaena defeated Kealakehe 7-3 at Gabby Inaba Field on Thursday. The Waveriders (1-5) are playing every home game on the road this season while their field is being renovated.
KEALAKEKUA — Playing in an extremely rare away game at its home park, Konawaena defeated Kealakehe 7-3 at Gabby Inaba Field on Thursday. The Waveriders (1-5) are playing every home game on the road this season while their field is being renovated.
The game opened with a pitching battle between Wildcat pitcher Kolu Alani and Kealakehe’s Toby Estrella. Both pitchers shut down the opposing offenses for the first two innings. As the third inning came to an end, the score was tied at 1-1.
In the top of the fourth, Konawaena (6-3) took advantage of a few walks with some timely hitting to break the game open. Boaz Ayers and Tevin Canda led off the inning with a pair of singles and moved up a base. With runners on second and third, Stevie Texeira hit a grounder to short, which caught Canda off base and in a pickle. He reached third, which forced Ayers to leave the bag and head home. He was tagged out near the plate.
Texeira stole second and Seau Amor walked to load the bases. Kaiya Leleiwi singled to left, scoring Canda and Texeira. Amor advanced all the way around to third. Leleiwi moved to second on the throw.
Alani followed with a deep sacrifice fly to right field. The fielder made the catch but fell backwards on the play, allowing Amor and Leleiwi to cross the plate for a 5-1 lead.
On the Hill, Alani ran into a little trouble in the bottom of the fourth when Makana Kalua’u beat out a bunt single and stole second. Dennison Joaquin singled to right with one out and Kalua’u tried to score on the play, but Ayers, the Wildcats right fielder, threw him out at the plate. Joaquin was then thrown out at second by the Konawaena catcher, Tyler Kitaoka, to end the inning.
“Our pitching was good, our defense is getting better and the bats came alive at the right time today,” said Konawaena head coach Adam Tabieros. “Overall, they did a pretty good job and we got the runs when we needed them.”
The Wildcats didn’t need any more runs to get the victory, but they did not stop scoring in the fourth. In the sixth inning, Konawaena pushed two more runs across the plate. AJ Allred opened the inning with a single to left and Leleiwi followed with a triple to center. Vohn Yamaguchi singled to left and the Wildcats now led 7-1.
After hitting the ball to the bottom of the left field fence in his previous at-bat. Kealakehe’s Markus Degrate led off the bottom of the sixth inning with a solo home run that traveled nearly the same line. The hit was Degrate’s third of the game. He scored the first two Waverider runs.
“We are making some adjustments with Markus by having him stand a little more upright and adding some some more power,” said Kealakehe coach Josh Hansen. “He had some really good swings on the ball. He has college type talent.”
Kealakehe was not done scoring in the inning. Hunter Cuaresma singled to left and with two outs, Kalua’u reached on a throwing error by Canda at third base, putting runners on the corner. Kalua’u was caught off the first base bag by Alani, but Cuaresma broke from third and beat the tag by Yamaguchi at the plate. The next batter grounded out to the pitcher to end the inning. Konawaena led 7-3.
The Wildcats threatened but did not score in the top of the seventh. Ayers took the mound for Konawaena in the bottom of the inning. He forced the first batter to ground out to second and struck the second batter out. The third batter grounded out to third to end the ballgame.
Canda led the Wildcats offense, going 3-for-4 with a run scored.
“I am very happy with him and how the other freshmen played,” Tabieros said. “It is good to see the younger players stepping up and hitting the ball hard.”
Alani picked up the win. He allowed three runs, two earned, in six innings, striking out five and walking none. Estrella picked up the loss. he allowed seven earned off eight hits, in five innings. He struck out three and walked three.