Softball

There are all kinds of reactions when Pearl City senior pitcher Tyanna Kaaialii goes to work on the mound. The right-hander is a key reason why Pearl City (6-2) has reached a No. 1 ranking — if just for a week — in the Star-Advertiser Softball Top 10 this season. She is featured here in Tuesday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “I think she’s one of the top pitchers we have faced so far,” Leilehua coach Stacy Araki said. Kaaialii is an excellent […]

There’s a wild learning curve for young teams, and the Kaiser Cougars have been riding that road from day one. Mitch Matsumoto knows the ups and downs, the highs and lows well. The eighth-year Kaiser coach had previous stops at Moanalua, Anuenue and Island Pacific. He is, in so many ways, the right manager for the current Cougars, who are talented, young, erratic and undeterred. Despite the loss of two starting players to academic probation, the Cougars endured their first […]

The mood was not sparkly three weeks ago at Kamehameha’s softball field. Even in the afterglow of a decisive victory over rival Punahou — a 12-1 TKO win in six innings — there was a pensive vibe. Ace pitcher Rayla Jacobs-Kea immediately got her shoulder wrapped in ice. She felt a soreness and ache in that pitching shoulder she said she had never felt before. Was this the real deal for a Kamehameha squad that had begun the ILH season […]

Building practically from scratch has a way of thickening the skin of coaches, players and supporters. Coach John Uekawa has that thick skin, but make no mistake, he isn’t numb to the ups and downs of his young Maryknoll softball team either. With just one senior on the roster, after years of literally building a program — the facility at Sand Island State Park is a thing of beauty and a penultimate example of giving, laborious hands — the Lady […]

There are the Houston Rockets, the NBA franchise that makes offense look so easy with James Harden driving the bus. There are the Atlanta Falcons, an NFL offensive juggernaut with Matt Ryan at quarterback and Julio Jones at wide receiver, a franchise that finally shored up its defense enough to reach the Super Bowl. Set any clock alarm to the Punahou time zone, however, if bomb-squad power and scoring on the softball diamond are needed. The Buffanblu (4-3) are on […]