One run of support was all the cushion Kelena Sauer needed to preserve his masterpiece in the first round of the ILH playoffs.
No. 8 Kamehameha edged Mid-Pacific 1-0 at Ala Wai Park on Saturday morning in a prototypical pitchers’ duel between the Warriors junior and the Owls’ Jaydon Tomas.
After Beau Sylvester’s two-out double in the bottom of the sixth drove in Kobe Iwai for the game’s lone run, Sauer retired the Owls in order in the top of the seventh to finish off his gem.
“I feel really good. They’re a really good hitting team and I know they practice a lot. To do that against them feels good,” said Sauer, whose shutout advances Kamehameha to the second round for a showdown with Punahou on Monday. “I think the win as a team motivates us to do even better, for the hitters and pitchers to just keep striving.”
Sauer struck out five, walked one and allowed two infield hits, needing just 75 pitches to get the victory for Kamehameha (10-6). Tomas was almost as efficient for the Owls (7-8), striking out six to go with three hits and a walk in 85 pitches.
With both pitchers in rhythm mowing down hitters behind two error-free defenses, the game finished in an hour and 28 minutes.
“(Sauer) was great, but Tomas was outstanding as well. I tip my hat to him, too,” Kamehameha coach Daryl Kitagawa said. “The entire Mid-Pac team, they play the game the right way, and we really respect what they do. We just try to give it our all.”
Sylvester was 0-for-2 heading into his at-bat in the sixth inning, but belted the first pitch he saw his third time at the plate to the power alley in left field, giving Iwai more than enough time to score the game’s only run.
“Hopefully we’ll get more, but one ended up being enough today. But we’re grateful for Beau stepping up and coming through when he needed to,” Kitagawa said. “Happy for him, happy for our team because it was a team victory. The defense backed up Kelena today and we got the one timely hit when we needed to.”
Sylvester wasn’t originally on the varsity roster but was called up from JV by Kitagawa. Since then, the skipper says, the young freshman has been too good to not be included in the lineup.
On Saturday, he made sure he proved his coach right.
“I got all curves my first two at-bats, so I was just looking to see if he was gonna come over with the fastball and he did. I saw it and I took it,” Sylvester said. “After that one run, I knew Kelena was not gonna give it up.
“It’s great to be a part of this team. We’re just so tight, it’s like a family up here compared to all the other teams I’ve played on, just so close up here.”
First pitch was set for 9 a.m. on Saturday, but that didn’t deter either team. Early starts at Ala Wai are not uncommon in the ILH even during regular season play.
“We got to school at 6:30, we hung out in the clubhouse and the kids listened to some music and took some cuts,” Kitagawa said. “We got here around 8 so they were loose, they’ve been loose this entire time. Again, credit to them for coming up and playing good enough today.”
Kamehameha will return to Ala Wai on Monday at 3 p.m., while Mid-Pacific awaits its next opponent in the losers bracket.
Momentum now may be on Kamehameha’s side. Come Monday when Punahou takes the field, it’ll be its first game since April 8. The Buffanblu won that game against the Warriors 2-1 to close out the regular season at 13-2, earning the regular season ILH title and automatic state berth.
“Our last seven games were one-run games, so we’ve been battle-tested,” Kitagawa said. “To our kids’ credit, they’ve been used to those pressure situations.
“It’s a playoff game and we’ll play at any time they tell us to. It’s fun. The pressure situations, you gotta want to be in this situation. We love it.”