Blayne Eldredge raced home from third base on a passed ball with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning as No. 4 Punahou edged No. 3 Kamehameha 4-3 on Tuesday night at Les Murakami Stadium.
The win pushes Punahou to 6-2 in the Interscholastic League of Honolulu. Kamehameha slipped to 6-2-1 in another extremely tight ILH baseball campaign.
“We kind of let them in the door with walks and they kind of let us in with errors,” Punahou coach Keenan Sue said.
The game was close from the start, and Kamehameha tied the game at 3 in the top half of the seventh on a clear, cool night at Murakami Stadium.
Eldredge led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk against Kamehameha’s third pitcher of the game, Li‘i Pontes. Ola Aina’s sacrifice bunt pushed Eldredge to second, and he advanced to third on a single to center by Cody Hinano. On a 1-0 pitch to Jake Tsukada, Pontes’ pitch was mishandled by catcher Vicente Venenciano and bounced to the backstop, allowing Eldredge to touch home plate easily with the winning run.
“I think they were anxious. They thought we would bunt, which we were,” Sue said.
It was the second meeting of the season between the teams. Kamehameha won the previous matchup 7-6 in eight innings on March 17.
“We played well enough to win,” Warriors first-year head coach Kahi Kaanoi said. “We gave away runs and that’s the name of the game.”
Kyle Uemura, who pitched 22⁄3 innings in relief of starter William Bisho, got the win. He permitted one run on two hits with two strikeouts and no walks.
The Buffanblu took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Tsukada drew a one-out walk, Kyson Donahue was hit by a Javyn Pimental pitch, and Ryan Nishi singled to load the bases. Aaron Tom’s grounder was misfielded by the shortstop, Pontes, and Tsukada scored the game’s first run.
Kamehameha escaped further damage when Kalae Harrison grounded into a 6-4-3 double play.
The Warriors tied the game in the top of the second. Pontes led off with a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on Venenciano’s two-out single to center.
In the top of the fifth, Venenciano led off with a single, stole second base and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt by Mattingly Ho. Chaesten Chon then laid down a bunt to first, scoring Venenciano to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead.
Punahou answered with two runs in the bottom of the fifth. Eldredge led off with a single, then stole second and third bases. With one out, Kamahao Arita replaced the starter, Pimental. Hinano sent a short fly to center, but the outfielder, Ho, never got a bead on the ball and it dropped for a double, scoring Eldredge.
Tsukada then grounded to third, but the throw by Kalamaku Kuewa was off line, permitting Tsukada to score, giving Punahou a 3-2 lead.
The Warriors got a one-out triple by pinch hitter Kala Burnett in the top of the seventh. Chon followed with a bloop single to right, scoring Burnett to tie the game.
