Pearl City advances in OIA softball

Out to prove it’s a better squad than a .500 regular-season record showed, Pearl City went to town offensively Wednesday in a 17-1 victory over Moanalua in the first round of the Oahu Interscholastic Association softball playoffs.

In the pitcher’s circle, starter Tyanna Kaaialii and reliever Kristin Frost combined to no-hit visiting Na Menehune in the game that ended after the top of the fifth due to the 10-run mercy rule.

For its fruitful effort, the Chargers (7-6) get the opportunity to visit No. 5 Kaiser (12-0) in the quarterfinals today. That is sure to be a much more difficult test for Pearl City, which was in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Top 10 most of the season but are now on the outside looking in.

Moanalua (5-8), which head coach Kristie Morikawa called a classic example of an on-again, off-again team, was most certainly off Wednesday, especially in the first inning when three walks and two errors helped the Chargers take a comfortable 8-0 lead.

“That’s been our M.O. this season,” Morikawa said. “There’s days when we’re spot on and there’s days when, using a boxing analogy, we don’t know how to take the first punch.”

Taylor Shigeta’s two-run double and Cheyne Obara’s RBI fielder’s choice were among Pearl City’s key moments in that first-inning explosion.

The lead zoomed to 12-0 in the second, thanks to three more walks and two more Moanalua errors. With an RBI groundout, Anasaria Cabato made it 13-0 in the third.

“I felt our execution offensively was better than it’s been the whole season,” Chargers head coach Chad Obara said. “We moved runners up when we should have moved runners up; we hit the ball when we should have hit the ball.”

In the fourth, Raven Rosa-Lasco was the first Moanalua baserunner to reach second, when she walked and Iyana Reed was hit by a pitch. A walk to Makamae Kaleikini loaded the bases before Rosa-Lasco crossed the plate on Megan Oshiro’s fielder’s choice. Still, Na Menehune trailed 13-1.

“It’s kind of disappointing because that’s not how we usually play,” said Moanalua starting and losing pitcher Kyler Tsukada, who yielded to reliever Shanelle Lum in the first and returned to the circle in the fourth.

Kristin Frost’s double, Cabato’s run-scoring single and Darian Obara’s RBI groundout helped Pearl City push its final four runs across the plate in the top of the fourth.

“The same step forward we made today, we want to take into (today against Kaiser),” said Frost, who pitched the top of the fifth and had to deal with only one baserunner in four batters after the Chargers’ only error of the game. “We have to trust each other, trust our eyes at the plate and make good decisions. We’re getting better.”

Frost plans to play at Division III Johnson &Wales in Providence, R.I., next season.

Kaaialii struck out six and walked four in her four frames.

“What we’ve been through this season has proven to the players that we’re a good team,” Obara said. “But we’re not so good that we can come out here and play at 75 percent (heading forward) and think we’re going to win.”