Pahoa High’s baseball team isn’t used to playing in meaningful games, but junior Shane Sale-Silva is.
“You could tell,” Daggers coach Gavien DeMello said.
With Pahoa looking to gain a leg up in the BIIF Division II playoff race Monday in Waimea, Sale-Silva delivered in a big way, firing a two-hit shutout with 10 strikeouts in a 4-0 win against Hawaii Prep.
“He was lights out,” DeMello said.
Sale-Silva was one of the aces on the 2019 Hilo PONY team that won the Pony 13s World Series. Not three years later, he helped the Daggers (2-2) gain a key victory in their bid to make the Division II semifinals, an accomplishment for a school that entered the season having not fielded a team since 2017 and having not won game since 2015.
“You could see the maturity,” DeMello said of his right-hander, who walked only one batter and threw 60 of his 94 pitches for strikes, according to HPA’s statistics. “He’s played at that level. He doesn’t get stressed.”
Pahoa got all the runs it would need in the second when Donivan Lynch led off with a double and Max Potter drew a walk. Lynch scored on a wild pitch and Potter came home on an error. In the fourth, Kimo Davilla doubled with one out and scored two batters later on Cash Cohen’s single.
Lynch finished 3 for 4.
Arel Urbanozo went five innings for Ka Makani (0-4), striking out five and walking three.
DeMello gave kudos to Potter, his catcher for every inning his season.
“It’s not easy to catch Shane, especially his slider and curveball,” the coach said.
Kamehameha 10, Ka’u 0: Salvatore Martino and Dylan Hanson combined to throw a perfect game at Kameeiamoku Field.
Martino pitched four innings and struck out 10 for the win in the five-inning TKO game. Hanson pitched one inning and struck out the side.
Spencer Yoshizumi batted 2 for 3, scored two runs and had three RBIs. Liwai Correa went 3 for 4, scored three runs and had an RBI and Hanson was 2 for 3 with two RBIs in the five-inning win for the Warriors (3-0), who pounded 10 hits.
Keenan Toriano pitched four innings and gave up nine runs in the loss. Jonah Beck gave up a run on two walks and didn’t record an out for the Trojans (1-3).