This past weekend, one of the most exciting keiki baseball and softball activities was held in Hilo town.
Nobu Yamauchi RBI Baseball and Softball Organization held the second annual Pitch, Hit and Run competition at Andrews Field, and many of the young stars showcased their variety of skills to the community. Players aged 7-14 competed in the day of fun-and-friendly competition.
For pitch, hit and run, the scoring is simple. In the run portion, athletes were timed two attempts of sprinting 90 feet. The time was then later converted to points. In the hitting activity, batters smacked balls off the tee as far as possible — as zones were set up prior to the event. Each zone represented a point value, and each batter had five attempts.
The pitching portion was designed to test the accuracy of athletes’ throws. Pitchers attempted to throw the ball at the strike zone target, which was set up on a bow net. Like the batting game, keiki had five attempts to hit the bullseye or strike zone to earn points.
At the end of the day, scorekeepers counted each athlete’s cumulative points from the three events to determine a winner for each division. Winners are now eligible to potentially advance to the team championship stage. A Pitch, Hit and Run representative will soon be reaching out to the winners’ families to inform them on whether their child qualified.
Mathias Villalobos of the baseball 11-12 division logged the most points out of any competitor, tallying 1,625. Ethan Pangelinan of the baseball 13-14 division had 1,605 points in his win. Kanaloa Kaitell of the baseball 7-8 division won his age group with 1,190 points, while Nakoa Villatora of the baseball 9-10 division logged 1,080 points in his divisional win.
In the softball competition, Jessica Garza of the 13-14 division led the way with 1,460 points in her win. Zaylyn Tanoue of the 11-12 division won with 1,225 points, while Sierra Jane Piianaia-Ishii of the 7-8 division claimed victory with 705.
The paper would like to congratulate all winners on a memorable performance!
