KEAAU – Kamehameha’s Andy Correa had just finished coaching his second baseball game Saturday, but more work was ahead.
Correa filled tubs with water, divvied out water blasters, separated players by grade and directed each to a different base, and he lay a tarp in front of home plate on the third-base line.
Someone was going to get drenched.
“Whatever you do,” Correa told Hanalei Warren, “don’t get hurt doing it.”
It might have been the typical scene for a final Warriors’ home game, but “I’d never seen it with just one player,” Warren said after Kamehameha beat a Honokaa-Konawaena wooden bat league team 8-4.
He may never have gotten his chance as an upperclassman to help Kamehameha extend its BIIF Division II dynasty, but he was able to soak in a senior day celebration as the center of attention with a solo trip around the bases.
“It is what it is,” Warren said. “Sucks that the past two years had to be this way, but you have to be able to make the best of it.
“I’m blessed to have had these group of guys to play with.”
As if on cue, Warren stroked a three-run double in his last at-bat in a game that was shortened to 4 1/2 innings because of a time limit, finishing with four RBIs.
“Any opportunity we have to play is a good one,” said Warren, who will continue his baseball career at Southwestern Oregon Community College.
Junior left-hander Makana Carbonel-Mangus largely held a potent Honokaa-Konawaena lineup in check, striking out seven in 4 1/3 innings.
It would be understandable if Carbonel-Mangus and his teammates used this slate of games solely as an audition for next season, when BIIF championship chases are expected to resume, but he said, “I think we’re all here for Hana. We’re a young team. We just have to focus on ourselves right now.”
Ethan Yamaguchi finished with two hits for Honokaa-Konawaena, including an RBI single in the top of the first inning. The Warriors’ first four batters in the bottom half of the inning reached base and scored against Justin Birch. Dylan Hanson brought in two runs with a two-out single to left.
Birch struck out five in 3 2/3 innings, and half of the eight runs charged against him were unearned.
Carbonel-Mangus struck out the first batter in the fifth, but Bronson Rivera tripled and scored on a wild pitch, and a walk prompted Correa to bring in reliever Salvatore Martino. Aiden Joaquin made it 8-4 with a double that scored Yamaguchi, but Martino retired the final batter of the game on a pop up.
“I trust my catcher, he helps a lot, and my defense helps me out,” said Carbonel-Mangus, who allowed only two hits with four walks. “If not for them, the score would have been way closer.”
Carbonel-Mangus, Martino, Hanson and Jonah Reich will be among the arms that Kamehameha relies on next season. On Saturday, however, one of their most important duties was to make sure Warren didn’t leave without getting soaked.
“It wasn’t too much water, it’s fun,” he said. “It’s the brotherhood that we create each year and the memories that I make with these guys.”
“These guys grind,” Warren said. “(Kamehameha) will have talent next year.”
Earlier, a Kealakehe wooden bat league team beat Kamehameha 7-5, batting around in the third and scoring six times. Elliott Vesauyadra ripped a two-run triple and pitched two scoreless innings to get the save. Kai Orlando doubled and drove in two runs, and Zesden Tolentino pitched four innings to get the win.
For Kamehameha, Warren pitched three innings, and only one of the seven runs charged to him was earned. Boston Matsu was 3 for 3.
Also, Waiakea beat Kealakehe 8-1.