Maryknoll and Pac-Five will go to the limit to decide the ILH Division II championship, and it is only fitting.
Joshua Muneno poked a single through a drawn-in infield and the Spartans beat the Wolfpack 2-1 in nine innings to extend the playoffs one more game. The teams will meet again today at Central Oahu Regional Park. The winner takes the ILH and the state berth that comes with it. The loser calls it a season.
“Everybody got their money’s worth over here,” Pac-Five coach Dennis Fukunaga said. “I told the coaches we come here so often and play the same team we can come here blindfolded already. A game like this should have no losers, really.”
Pac-Five leads the season series 3-2-1, with the tie a 12-inning affair in the middle of the regular season. Thursday’s game threatened to match it.
Neal Nakasone and Jedd Andrade led off the ninth with singles and moved over on a sacrifice bunt by Justin Ushio. Pac-Five brought the infield in and Muneno got ahead of Wolfpack pitcher Matthew Reynolds before looking at a strike. He poked the next pitch between the second and first basemen to break the tie.
“All that was going through my head was that I had to get on top and drive through the ball just as coach says.” Muneno said. “It was a perfect pitch, I just had to get a hard hit and get it through the infield.”
Reynolds, who stranded the bases loaded with a strikeout of Trevor Hirano to end the previous inning, limited the Spartans to one run in the ninth, retiring Brent Hironaga on a strikeout and Phillip Aylward on a long fly.
Pac-Five fought back in the bottom of the ninth, with Shawne Hampton and Ryllen Abeshima singling to put two runners on with two outs. Maryknoll pitcher Chase Uyema forced Brent Vargas to ground out to third to end it.
Uyema was the picture of efficiency in the complete game, needing only 99 pitches — 72 for strikes —and scattering eight hits. The only run he allowed came in the fourth inning when Hampton plated Landon Teramoto from second on a single to left for a 1-0 lead. The Spartans had a shot at cutting Teramoto down, but Connor Donohue’s throw short-hopped catcher Neal Nakasone and the backstop couldn’t handle it.
Maryknoll played nine innings of errorless ball behind Uyema.
“That was my whole plan this whole game, let the defense do its job,” Uyema said. “I just throw strikes. Lately we have had hard times (on defense) but today we were at our best and we needed it.”
Maryknoll, which rapped out a hit against Pac-Five starter Christopher Andreyka in every inning, waited until the sixth to tie the score. Andrade doubled to right-center field to lead off and scored when Ushio bunted back to the pitcher and second baseman Braxton Kihara couldn’t handle the throw to first base.
Maryknoll left 14 runners on base in the game to Pac-Five’s four.
The Spartans and the Wolfpack have played 49 innings this season, with Maryknoll scoring 20 times and Pac-Five 19.
At Central Oahu Regional Park
Maryknoll 000 001 001 — 2 11 0
Pac-Five 000 100 000 — 1 8 3
Chase Uyema and Neal Nakasone. Christopher Andreyka, Matthew Reynolds (7) and Ryllen Abeshima. W-Uyema. L-Reynolds.
Leading hitters—Mkn: Trevor Hirano 3-5; Neal Nakasone 2-5; Jedd Andrade 3-5, 2B; Joshua Muneno 2-5, RBI. Pac-Five: Shawne Hampton 2-4, RBI; Ryllen Abeshima 3-4.
