Keenan Lum spent part of his Thursday working on harmonizing with his classmates.
The Kamehameha pitcher then hummed along to a win on the mound later in the afternoon with the aid of his Warrior teammates.
Given a five-run lead before he picked up the ball, Lum turned in a complete-game performance in Kamehameha’s 8-2 win at ‘Iolani as the Warriors evened their record in ILH play.
The Warriors improved to 3-3 by picking up their second win of a hectic week that includes tonight’s Kamehameha Schools Song Contest and concludes with a game at top-ranked Mid-Pacific on Saturday.
"Today was a long day," Lum said. "We had a long rehearsal, we had to rush back to school and get ready for the game mentally. We all handled it well and stayed strong-minded and got through it."
The Warriors’ five-run first inning probably eased Lum’s mind quite a bit. He protected the lead by holding ‘Iolani to four hits while striking out four and walking one. Senior shortstop Tyler Meditz sparked the Kamehameha offense with run-scoring doubles in the first and seventh innings as the Warriors jumped ahead early and pulled away late.
"Any time you can get a guy like Keenan a couple runs early it makes everybody feel a little more comfortable and we were fortunate enough to get off to a good start today," Kamehameha head coach Vern Ramie said.
"He threw a lot of strikes today and we supported him really well. Just all around it was a good pitching and defensive performance today."
Kamehameha took advantage of ‘Iolani’s early control issues to take command. The Warriors’ first two batters walked and Meditz doubled to left field to drive in James DeJesus. Kekai Rios walked to load the bases, and Jason Murakami drew another free pass to bring in Hoku Botelho. Will Young was hit by a pitch and Ryan Kaleiopu singled to left to push the lead to 4-0. Codie Paiva, Kamehameha’s ninth batter of the inning, capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to score Murakami.
Once he took the mound, Lum attacked the strike zone and let his defense work behind him. Botelho, the Warriors’ second baseman, had four assists in the first two innings, including a diving stop on ‘Iolani leadoff hitter Max Look’s sharp grounder in the bottom of the first.
Kamehameha added a run in the third and Lum was perfect through the first three innings before Look bunted for a base hit to lead off the fourth. Look went to third on Austin Darmawan’s single and scored on Christian Donahue’s fielder’s choice grounder. Corey Nakakura then delivered a two-out single cut the lead to 6-2.
The Raiders appeared poised to rally again in the sixth when they put two runners on with nobody out. But Paiva started a 5-4-3 double play, and Lum stopped Tanner Nishioka’s shot with his foot and located the ball in time to get the third out.
"The momentum was shifting to their side and it still wasn’t that big of a lead and getting that double play was big for us," said Lum, who retired ‘Iolani in order in the seventh and threw 91 pitches in the complete-game effort.
Neither team has much time to rest. ‘Iolani (2-4) faces No. 7 Punahou on Saturday, while Kamehameha takes on MPI.
At ‘Iolani
KAMEHAMEHA (3-3) 501 000 2 — 8 6 0
‘IOLANI (2-4) 000 200 0 — 2 4 0
Keenan Lum and Kekai Rios. Toshi Taniguchi, Javin Nohara (1), Austin Jim On (7) and JR Matsuura. W—Lum. L—Taniguchi.
Leading hitters—Kamehameha:Tyler Meditz, 2-4, 2 2b, 2 RBIs; Rios, RBI; Jason Murakami, RBI; Will Young, RBI; Ryan Kaleiopu, RBI; Codie Paiva, RBI. ‘Iolani: Austin Darmawan, 2-3; Christian Donahue, RBI; Corey Nakakura, RBI.
