Waiakea’s Dylan Honda wanted the ball, and he didn’t feel much like sharing.
The senior didn’t give it back until he’d uncorked 104 pressure-packed pitches on BIIF baseball’s brightest stage, his left arm packed in ice afterward.
“It’s probably going to be tight tomorrow,” Honda said.
He clearly was loose Saturday night. Honda didn’t get rattled when Hilo High stole home on him nor when it tried to shake his composure every time a runner reached third base thereafter. He remain unfazed when the Vikings issued an intentional walk to load the bases for his two-out plate appearance in a tie game in the bottom of the seventh.
Fittingly, the game ended on an infield hit. Honda legged one out, sending the Warriors to a 4-3 victory and storming out of the dugout at UH-Hilo with the Division I championship.
“It means a lot,” Waiakea senior Kedren Kinzie said. “Last year of high school, not going to go back, we can only move on from here.”
Each teams’ next stop is the HHSAA tournament, May 4-7 on Maui. The Warriors earned a bye to the quarterfinals.
If it’s hard to beat a good team two times in a season, it must be all the harder to do so three times. Far from the slugger-laden team that ruled the 2019 season only to be swept by the Vikings in the finals, these Warriors (8-0) got things done differently.
For those keeping track, there still hasn’t been a repeat champ in BIIF D-I since Waiakea in 2012.
“Where do you start?” coach Chris Honda said right after the game.
Probably on the infield. That’s where most of the action was, save for Kinzie’s two-run triple in the third inning.
Forget about launch angles and exit velocity, this game was about smallball and execution and being opportunistic. Chris Honda had told his team they couldn’t play “showcase baseball” this season, but would have to rely on team baseball.
“Straight up compete, that was mentality the whole time,” Kinzie said. “Play together, win as a team, lose as a team. That’s how it works.
“We all grew up playing with each other, chemistry is good and everyone is family like here. Treat everyone like they would want to be treated.”
Hilo (5-3) tied the game during an eventful top of the fifth that started when Elijah Haili reached on a error and Xaige Lancaster a hit. Devin Saltiban bunted for a hit to load the bases, prompting Hilo coach Baba Lancaster to put the wheels in motion. Haili stole home and Kaynan Kaku brought another run in on a suicide squeeze. Hilo put down a third consecutive bunt to try and take the lead, but Dylan Honda got the first out of the inning on a close play at the plate.
“I just thought about the first game I pitched against Hilo, I was all rattled up,” he said. “I just wanted to stay calm, play catch with my catcher and let my defense work.”
The threat ended prematurely when Chris Honda successfully argued runner’s interference on a groundout.
Hilo starter Eli Yamanaka matched Dylan Honda for most of the game, wiggling out of a no-out, based-loaded jam in the second inning by inducing a comebacker and starting a 1-2-3 double play.
Yamanaka hit Mason Hirata to begin the fifth, and that proved costly when a two-out error allowed Waiakea to regain the lead.
Already with a win and a save against Hilo this season, Loren Iwata came on to pitch the seventh, hitting Saltiban to begin the inning. Iwata got the next two outs, but a potential title-clinching one was misplayed for an error, and Saltiban crossed to tie the game 3-3.
“We made some errors out there, but they are picking each other up, they bounce back,” Chris Honda said. “Resiliency, that’s a sign of a good team.”
One of the key at-bats in the bottom of the seventh was Devin Garza’s lead-off walk against Hekili Robello. With a base open, Hilo opted to give Kinzie a free pass, and with two outs they put Yukon Yomono on, setting the stage for Honda.
He came through, but when asked about his most memorable moment in the game, he cited a play an inning earlier. Honda had lobbied to pitch the sixth, and with two runners aboard he won a lengthy battle with Xaige Lancaster, pumping pitch No. 104 for a called third strike on the outside corner to end the inning.
“It was one of my favorites, because Xaige has been my friend since we were young,” Honda said.
Coaching down the third-base line, Baba Lancaster had a different reaction to the strikeout, doing a half-turn and putting his hands on his knees.
Little separated Hilo and Waiakea this season, but the Warriors took all three games.
“Hats off to Hilo, and this could have gone either way,” Chris Honda said. “Every game could have gone either way. Amazing games.”