Two games into his varsity baseball coaching career, John Hao is looking for his first win. On Friday, his Castle Knights were given a five-inning, mercy-rule 11-0 thumping at home by No. 6 Kailua.
How Hao — the school’s football coach — got to be the head man in baseball is a different story altogether. Rocky Fraticelli, who was the baseball head coach since 2012, resigned from that post March 2 and the rest of his staff went with him. Laynie Sueyasu, the school’s athletic director, scrambled to find a replacement and Hao offered to pinch hit. The former Saint Louis School and University of Hawaii standout quarterback played baseball with the Crusaders in high school and he’s been an assistant with his son’s youth baseball teams.
Fraticelli attended Wednesday’s loss and said that he resigned as coach and as assistant athletic director after his brother, volunteer assistant Duane Fraticelli, was relieved of his duties by the school administration. Rocky Fraticelli said no specific reason was given by Sueyasu for the releasing of his brother. An effort to reach Sueyasu after the game was unsuccessful.
“The decision was made without my consultation,” said Fraticelli, who added that he was told that several complaints about Duane Fraticelli were made by parents of players to the school administration but that he has not been given the reasons for the complaints.
Hao, who was busy with spring weight-room football workouts, walked through the open door.
“I love baseball,” said Hao, who brought four of his football assistants with him to the dugout.
On Friday, the Surfriders (3-0) poured it on against the Knights (1-2), who opened the OIA season with a 4-2 win over Roosevelt on March 3 with Fraticelli — who agreed to coach one day after officially resigning — and then lost 9-0 to Kaiser in Hao’s first game Wednesday.
Kailua collected 13 hits off of two Castle pitchers, including Kalua Neves’ two-run homer to right that was well beyond the 325-foot sign. Neves’ shot was part of a six-run second inning for the Surfriders. With a triple in the third, Neves also started a two-run rally that made it 8-0.
“We’ve been working on his swing,” Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. “He’s been working on it hard. He had an offspeed pitch that he can handle and he got all of it. Balls fly here, but that’s something that Kalua is capable of doing at any field. He’s just gotta square up the ball and that’s the damage he can do.”
Matthew Kaleiohi’s two-run single and Jalen Ah Yat’s sacrifice fly boosted the count to 11-0 in the top of the fifth. Both Kaleiohi and Ah Yat finished with three RBIs.
Pitchers Ryan Inouye and Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo combined on a one-hitter for Kailua. Jabe Kahawaii, who went two-plus innings, took the loss for the Knights.
