WAILUKU — The Warriors of Waiakea, the BIIF champion, have David Nakamura on the mound. Pearl City has Carson Okada starting at pitcher. The Chargers are roughly 15 hours removed from last night’s 1-0, 10-inning win over Maui.
1st
Colby Hirano walks and Sam Prentice is hit by pitch. Conference at the mound and it looks for a moment like Nakamura might get the hook, but he stays in. He gets Devin Kapuras on a fly out and Matt Yokota lines into a 6-4 double play. Warriors escape damage.
The Warriors get two runners in scoring position — Trayden Tamiya (walk) and Taylor Mondina (HBP) — but Shaun Kurosawa grounds out and Gehrig Octavio flies out. Empty inning.
2nd
The Chargers get a gift to score first. Christian Onomura leads off with a single to center and is sac bunted to second by Trestan Nakamura. Kaleb Nishijo walks and Matt Aribal’s routine grounder to first is a fielding error by 1B Kurosawa. The ball caroms away and rolls under the dugout fence. Two-base error. Onomura scores and courtesy runner Trenton Darley goes to third base, Aribal to second. PC 1, WAIK 0.
DH Chase Yoshida flies out and Hirano walks to load the bases. Sam Prentice grounds to second, inning over.
Waiakea grounds out to SS Aribal three times. Three putouts.
3rd
With one out, Yokota’s line drive to left is misplayed by LF Guy Yokoe. The wind is kicking up again. The ball goes to the corner and Yokota reaches second base on the error. Onomura walks. Then Yokota steals third without a throw. Then Onomura steals second without a throw. Nakamura grounds to second for the second out with Yokota scoring from third. Nishijo follows with another grounder to second for the third out. PC 2, WAIK 0.
Aribal leads off with a perfect push bunt past the mound. He has first base, but 2B Tamiya throws anyway and overthrows the 1B. Aribal goes to second base easily. He steals third base, but ends up stranded as Nakamura retires Chase Yoshida, Hirano and strikes out Prentice.
4th
The Warriors go three up, three down for the third inning in a row. Okada has retired 11 batters in a row going back to the first inning.
Waiakea has a new pitcher in the game, Makoa Andres. Kapuras grounds out, but Yokota singles and steals second, no throw. Onomura grounds to the pitcher, who throws to second and instead of tagging Yokota out during a 1-6-5 rundown, the ball pops free and he is safe back at second. Fielder’s choice, no error, according to the official scorer.
After Trestan Nakamura is hit by pitch to load the bases, Nishijo is at bat. Catcher’s interference is called on a swing, which gives Nishijo first base and Yokota is forced in from third base. PC 3, WAIK 0.
Aribal flies out and Yoshida grounds out to end the inning.
Waiakea gets on the scoreboard. Mackanzy Maesaka singles to left and Anthony Benevides Jr. reaches on an infield single. The ball caromed off the pitcher, Okada and bounced behind the mound, allowing courtesy runner Joey Ongais to advance to third. Andre’s sac fly to left allows Ongais to score. PC 3, WAIK 1.
Jaron Kawaguchi and Nathan Minami ground out to end the inning for Waiakea.
6th
Hirano leads off the Chargers’ half with a triple to left as the LF has another tough time reading the ball in the wind. But Andres bears down and strikes out Prentice, gets Kapuras on a pop up and fans Yokota.
Waiakea gets a single by Tamiya and a one-out single by Kurosawa. After a wild pitch, both advance a base. Octavio grounds to second and Tamiya scores. PC 3, WAIK 2.
Maesaka grounds to third, ending the inning.
7th
Onomura drives a ball to left and the LF Yokoe again struggles to read the wind. It sails over his head and Onomura reaches second with a double. He moves to third on a one-out groundout by pinch hitter Ansin Mostoles. Pinch hitter Trenton Darley then singles to right, scoring Onomura from third. PC 4, WAIK 2.
Hirano grounds to second for the third out.
Waiakea gets a one-out single by Andres and a single by pinch hitter Jacob Igawa. Then courtesy runner Lester Iwata gets picked off second base and is tagged out in a rundown, and then the other base runner, Igawa, is thrown out attempting to advance to second. Two outs off one rundown and the game is over. Waiakea had four errors, not including the fielding difficulties in left field that were technically base hits, and blows a chance to tie or take the lead in the bottom of the seventh on a major baserunning blunder.
That’s another seeded champion knocked out of the tourney. Pearl City advances to the semifinals.
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