Andy Correa is not a meteorologist, but he’s hoping the weather forecasts for 60 percent chance of rain on Thursday is dead wrong.
BIIF champion and No 1 seed Kamehameha (7-0) plays OIA runner-up Waianae (8-4) at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Division II state quarterfinals at Wong Stadium.
BIIF runner-up Konawaena (4-3) plays OIA champion and No. 3 Nanakuli (11-1) at 2 p.m.
“We haven’t practiced from Friday. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday we did some stuff, but not much,” he said. “With the weather, we’re playing it by ear. If it rains too much with four games in a day, you can’t have any delays.”
The Warriors won their first state title in 2016 when states were held at Wong. Somehow, despite no preseason games, they were given the No. 1 seed.
“You can throw that seeding our the window. We’re thankful to be the No. 1 seed, but we’re playing the OIA runner-up,” Correa said. “There’s no bye, so no real advantage other than playing at home. It’s nice we don’t have to travel and deal with the issues of travel. We know all our parents can come and hopefully, we’ll put on a good showing and represent our island.”
Still, the Warriors haven’t played at Wong Stadium since 2009 when they got three games in during the Stanley Costales preseason tournament.
They haven’t played back-to-back games either. The BIIF discontinued the best of three postseason this year.
“We’ll find out today. The most challenging thing is being prepared, being motivated,” Correa said. “But we’ve got a good bunch with good attitudes. We had a stretch of no games in 21 days. We just have to do all the little things in baseball, throw strikes, get on base, get timely hits, and play defense. If we’re lucky we advance to day 2 and go from there.”
The pitching staff has been anchored by seniors Salvatore Martino (3-0, 0.00 ERA in 11 innings), Makana Carbonel-Mangus (2-0, 2.86 ERA in 7 1/3 innings), and reliever Jonah Reich (1-0, two saves).
Freshman Noah Palea (1-0, 0.00 ERA in 7 2/3 innings) and junior Dylan Hanson (0-0, one inning) are the other relievers.
Hanson leads the team with a .571 batting average and 12 RBIs. The other top hitters are senior outfielder Spencer Yoshizumi (.500), Martino (.500), senior second baseman Keahi Higashima (.364), sophomore shortstop Liwai Correa (.364), and sophomore third baseman Kaohu Kawelu (.333).
Reich has signed to play ball at Eastern Arizona, and Higashima at Skagit Valley, a Division II school in Washington.
Correa hasn’t figured out a starting pitcher yet, all the better to keep the Seariders guessing.
“You just try to win on the first night and do whatever you can,” Correa said. “We haven’t played in any preseason tourneys or three nights in a row. But I’m sure they’ll respond. They’ll give their best effort, and we’ll see what happens. They haven’t seen a crowd yet or been under the stadium lights. We’ll find out a lot.
“With the rain, we don’t know how it will affect the pitching. If we have to play two games in a day. What kind of stuff do we have to deal with. But we’re happy that it’s here.”
