A little arm pain wasn’t going to stop Curtis Chung Jr. from getting Kaiser back to the state tournament.
The Cougars’ senior right-hander battled through soreness to give Kaiser five innings of solid work and Jakey Nam closed out a 4-3 win over visiting Moanalua on Thursday in an OIA baseball tournament quarterfinal game.
Chung, who started feeling pain in his right arm in the second inning, allowed six hits and one unearned run with four strikeouts before giving up a leadoff single in the sixth inning and exiting the game.
Nam, a left-hander, relieved Chung Jr. and got a double play to end the inning. Pinch hitter Cole Souza smashed a solo homer to center in the top of the seventh before Nam recorded the final two outs, including a strikeout to end it, to send the Cougars into tonight’s second semifinal at Les Murakami Stadium against Mililani.
“(Chung) was getting a little sore, but it’s not about pitch count for me, it’s about how the guys are doing,” Kaiser coach Kila Ka’aihue said. “We try to keep our guys around 85 (pitches). They are young kids and I’m not trying to push them. He wasn’t feeling it. He was losing his velocity and so next man up. We’ve got a lot of guys.”
The Cougars not only moved on in the OIA tournament, but clinched a berth in the state tournament after missing it last year when they lost to Campbell in eight innings in the OIA quarterfinals and then to Kalani in the consolation semifinals in 13 innings.
“It’s very big. We’ve wanted to go to the state tournament and we didn’t get too lucky last year,” Chung said. “Of course I wanted to get a CG, but it didn’t happen. My arm was giving me problems I wasn’t expecting, but I tried to push through the five innings — tried to tough it out.”
Kaiser staked Chung to a three-run lead in the first inning. Jesse Strode led off with a double down the left-field line and scored on Cavin Lime’s infield single deep in the hole at shortstop.
Gyson Oshiro’s one-out line drive to left field drove in two runs for a 3-0 lead.
Moanalua broke through in the fifth inning when an errant to throw to first on a potential double play allowed Landon Kimura to score from second. Bryson Sato cut the deficit to 3-2 with a two-out RBI single, but was thrown out at first when the relay throw went to first instead of the plate to get Sato going back to the base.
Kaiser added a key run in the bottom of the inning when Christian Reasoner found a hole between short and third to fit a single to score Landon Shigeta, who reached base in all three plate appearances.
“When our boys play fundamental baseball, it’s fun to watch,” Ka’aihue said. “Basic baseball — throw strikes, catch the ball, mix in a couple of hits when you get them. When they stay focused and on task they can be really, really good.”
In other OIA D-I playoff games on Thursday:
>> Jalen Ah Yat homered twice and drove in five runs to lead Kailua to an 11-1 victory over Leilehua in five innings. Bryson Ewaliko allowed five hits and struck out six in a complete game to earn the win for the Surfriders (11-2), who will play in the state tournament for the 15th straight season.
>> Charles Winchester and two relievers combined on a four-hitter to lead Mililani to a 7-1 win over Castle. The Trojans (11-2) are in the state tournament for the seventh straight year and 10th time in the past 11 seasons.
>> Ayzek Silva struck out 10 in a one-hit shutout to lead Campbell to a 3-0 win over Farrington. Reese Shioji’s double was the only hit for the Governors (8-6), who need a win over Leilehua in the consolation bracket today to clinch a state-tournament berth for the first time since 1963.
