Thanks to four wild pitches and one passed ball by the opponent, the ball bounced Waiakea’s way Thursday.
Those bounding balls led to the Warriors’ first two runs in a 3-1 victory over second-seeded Kailua in the Division I quarterfinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation Baseball State Championships at Les Murakami Stadium.
Now, unseeded Big Island Interscholastic Federation runner-up Waiakea (16-2) has its sights set on its first state title since 2012.
“This team loves each other,” Warriors coach Rory Inouye said. “Everybody is here with one goal and hopefully that’s on Saturday.”
To get to the title game Saturday, Waiakea must get past unseeded Kamehameha today.
In the first inning, a walk and two wild pitches by Surfriders senior ace Joey Cantillo put Casey Yamauchi on third base, and Yamauchi trotted home for a 1-0 lead on Nathan Minami’s base hit.
In the fourth, more of the same trouble followed for Kailua (13-3). After the Warriors’ Jacob Igawa reached on an error, courtesy runner Chris Hatakenaka-Gibbs took the next three bases to the plate on a passed ball and two wild pitches to make it 2-0.
“That’s baseball,” said Cantillo, who plans to play at Kentucky next season and is a likely major league draft choice. “Stuff like that’s going to happen. At the end of the day, that’s not why we lost. We’re not going to blame it on that. We didn’t come back from that. The team came back and battled and played really well. We just didn’t come out on top.”
In the top of the seventh, Waiakea made it 3-0 when Makoa Andres walked and courtesy runner Brett Fujii put on the burners, went for third base on Gehrig Octavio’s sacrifice bunt and drew a wild throw that allowed him to score.
Kailua didn’t go down easy in the seventh, loading the bases on three walks by Andres, the starting and eventual winning pitcher. Yamauchi came in to relieve and he immediately got a pop-out.
A throwing error by Andres on a grounder to third base that could have been a game-ending double play pushed Kailua’s only runner home for the 3-1 count. Kailua’s next batter, Cody Riturban, sent a grounder Andres’ way and he made good on the second chance by starting a game-ending 5-4-3 double play.
“Kailua’s a great team and Cantillo is a great pitcher,” Inouye said. “We wanted to put the ball in play and cut down on strikeouts. The ball bounced our way. Makoa’s been our ace the whole time. He wants the ball. He’s our horse. He’s our go-getter. These boys believe in one team and pick up each other. You can see that from this game. No heads were hung and we got to complete that double play.”
Andres struck out six in six-plus innings. Yamauchi got the save.
“Two more (wins) and we’re in there,” Andres said. “I thank my team so much and thank backup pitcher Casey Yamauchi. He was very up today.”
Surfriders coach Corey Ishigo was not available for comment directly after the game.
“We battled,” said Cantillo, who struck out six in the loss. “It wasn’t a 1-2-3 inning (in the bottom of the seventh) or anything like that. We were right there in this game the whole time. Waiakea played a helluva game and (Andres) pitched a helluva game.”
STATE BASEBALL SCOREBOARD
HHSAA Division I Baseball
Maui 8, Saint Louis 6
At Les Murakami Stadium
Maui (12-5) 002 050 1 — 8 11 1
Saint Louis (16-6) 200 100 3 — 6 9 3
Micah Jio, Jyrah Lalim (7) and Bryant Nakagawa. Chase Meilleur, Dylan Lum (5) and Kai Perreira-Alquiza. W—Jio. L—Meilleur.
Leading hitters—Maui: Jio 2-4, 2 runs; Waylon Golis-Bacos 2-3, 2 runs; Mikito Barkman 2-3, run, 3 RBIs. StL: Charles Lopez 2-4, 2b, 2 RBIs; Matt Wong 3b, run, RBI. Perreira-Alquiza 2-4, 2 2b’s, 2 RBIs.
Waiakea 3, Kailua 1
At Les Murakami Stadium
Waiakea (16-2) 100 100 1 — 3 4 1
Kailua (13-3) 000 000 1 — 1 5 2
Makoa Andres, Casey Yamauchi (7) and Jacob Igawa. Joey Cantillo, Ryan Inouye (7) and Jalen Ah Yat. W—Andres. L—Cantillo. S—Yamauchi.
Leading hitter—Kail: Ah Yat 2-3.
Kamehameha 6, Baldwin 1
At Les Murakami Stadium
KSK (16-6) 001 302 0 — 6 6 1
Baldwin (13-3) 001 000 0 — 1 5 4
Christian DeJesus, Jesse Awa (6) and Dylan Salcedo. Ekolu Watanabe, Roy Meinen (4), Kaipo Haole (7) and Cade Kalehuawehe. W—DeJesus. L—Watanabe.
Leading hitters—KS: Logan Salcedo 2-3, 2 RBIs. Bald: Chase Akaka 2-3; Nainoa Keahi 2-3.
Campbell 5, Hilo 4
At Les Murakami Stadium
Campbell (16-1) 010 103 0 — 5 6 2
Hilo (14-3) 030 010 0 — 4 7 5
Markus Ramos, Nicholas Sampson (5) and Todd Takahama. Joey Jarneski, Ryan Ragual (7) and Chase Costa-Ishii. W—Sampson. L—Jarneski.
Leading hitters—Camp: Ramos 2-3, 3 RBIs; Sampson 2b. Hilo: Nick Antony 2-4.
Consolation Semifinal
Mililani 5, Kaiser 3
HHSAA Division II Baseball
Kauai 4, Molokai 3, 8 inn.
Christian Manera scored on a sacrifice bunt by Blake Probasco in the top of the eighth as the Red Raiders defeated the Farmers.
Manera led off the top of the eighth with a double to right field, then advanced to third on a wild pitch. Two batters later, Probasco brought him home.
Kauai will advance to face top-seeded Kamehameha-Hawaii at 10 a.m. today at Les Murakami Stadium.
At Hans L’Orange Park
Molokai (10-2) 200 001 00 — 3 5 2
Kauai (11-3) 101 100 01 — 4 8 1
Kairos Torres-Umi, Shraedon Naeole-Starkey (5) and Micah Calairo-Nakagawa. Taylor Apilado, Jacob Borrero (1), Christian Manera (6) and Skyler Sadora, Jake Gushikuma (3). W—Manera. L—Naeole-Starkey.
Leading hitters—Mol: Kekai Adachi 2-4. Kauai: Sam Nakata 2-4, 2 runs.
Hawaii Prep 3, Waianae 1
Ka Makani starter Jonah Hurney tossed a complete game, allowing just four hits and one run as Hawaii Prep upset the second-seeded Seariders.
Hurney struck out seven and walked one. Finn Richmond was 2-for-4 with an RBI to lead Hawaii Prep.
Hawaii Prep advances to face Damien today at 1 p.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
At Hans L’Orange Park
HPA (10-10) 100 020 0 — 3 7 0
Waianae (12-1) 010 000 0 — 1 4 0
Jonah Hurney and Braden Kojima. Macaiah Borling, Konan Keliikoa (5) and Earl Keomo-Young. W—Hurney. L—Borling.
Leading hitters—HPA: Finn Richmond 2-4.
Kamehameha-Hawaii 8, Radford 0
Kyran Kai went 3-for-4 with two runs scored, as the Warriors breezed past the Rams.
On the mound, Tai Atkins struck out eight over four innings and allowed just one hit before giving way to a bullpen that kept it scoreless the rest of the way.
Kamehameha-Hawaii, the top seed in Division II, will face Kauai today at 10 a.m. at Les Murakami Stadium.
At Hans L’Orange Park
Radford (9-4) 000 000 0 — 0 4 3
KS-Hawaii (17-2) 410 030 x — 8 10 0
Jack Dillon, Shane Vogt (6) and Cole Courtney. Tai Atkins, Zakaia Michaels (5), Kyran Kai (7) and Dallas Duarte. W—Atkins. L—Dillon.
Leading hitters—Rad: Jason Ryan Southard 2-3. KSH: Duarte 2-4; Kai 3-4, 2 runs; Kegan Miura 2-4; Kekona Naipo-Arsiga 2 RBI.
Quarterfinal
Damien 11, Farrington 6
