Baseball

The count was 3-1 on Joey Cantillo, his Kailua team down 7-0 in the top of the sixth. Cantillo was 0-for-1 at that point with a flyout, and he was hit by a pitch. High. It wasn’t anything to start a skirmish with Moanalua southpaw Randy Tabura, but two competitive lefties will often make things interesting. The 3-1 pitch from Tabura: Cantillo jumped all over it, sending it deep but foul down the right-field line. The ball sailed well over […]

Kalani’s Hunter Lau led off Saturday’s game by popping out to shortstop — significant only because the next nine Falcons batters, including Lau himself, went down swinging against Kailua ace Joey Cantillo. It was a special kind of night at Hans L’Orange Park in Waipahu. A real treat for baseball fans. It’s not often you see someone strike out 18 batters, and that’s what Cantillo ended up doing in dominant fashion. As is his custom, the 6-foot-4 senior lefty immediately switched […]

Not everyone has a player who has a magnetic effect on radar guns and the scouts that hoist them up. That’s what the seventh-ranked Kamehameha Warriors (2-1) are getting used to this spring thanks to ace Hunter Breault. The 6-foot-2 right-hander was solid last season as a junior on a talented, young team. This year, his fastball, which used to hit the mid-80s, now pops between 89 and 92 mph. That’s what a scout said on Tuesday as Breault opened […]

It seems to happen every year now. A bad couple of days of weather results in all hell breaking loose in baseball and softball. Umpires have to be shuffled around and pitching rotations get completely out of whack. Before you know it, you’re living the life of No. 7 Kamehameha, which embarked on four games in five days on Monday with a date against ‘Iolani still yet to be determined. The Warriors had 10 days to spew over a well-played […]

Kailua left-hander Joey Cantillo is off to a good start in the Oahu Interscholastic Association regular season. Cantillo pitched five innings, gave up two hits and struck out seven in a 2-1 victory over Kaiser in the OIA East opener on Wednesday. There were at least a handful of major league scouts there to watch him. The scouts have also come to watch him at practice. The 6-foot-4 Cantillo, who has more than 10 college scholarship offers, too, downplays all […]

Not everyone can have a former major leaguer as a coach, so the Kaiser Cougars are pretty lucky to have Kila Kaaihue as the head man. Kaaihue started his first OIA baseball regular season in charge as a head coach on Wednesday, where the maxim, “You can’t win ’em all,” came into play. Kaiser lost to OIA East rival Kailua 2-1, but served notice that it is probably never going to go down without a fight this year. After falling […]

He was named, in part, after the original Joltin’ Joe, the Yankee Clipper: Joe DiMaggio. Kailua senior pitcher Joey Cantillo is making a name for himself. The southpaw is our prep feature subject in today’s Star-Advertiser. Joey Cantillo Kailua baseball Sr. 6-4 1/2, 220 Q&A Six days a week, working out at Kailua’s baseball facility. Where does your work ethic come from? > I have an obsession to work hard and be the best. My dad instilled that in me. […]