‘Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira cautioned it doesn’t matter if the Raiders can’t get past OIA champion Mililani in Wednesday’s quarterfinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State baseball Championshis at Les Murakami Stadium.
But if the Raiders do manage to survive against the Trojans, they will be set up quite well moving forward.
‘Iolani needed just 46 pitches from ace Trevor Ichimura, who threw four perfect innings in an 11-1 win over Kalani in six innings on Tuesday to secure the Raiders’ first win in the state tournament since 2000.
Ichimura finished between the 36-60 pitches that require only one day of rest. That makes him eligible to throw Thursday in a potential semifinal game.
“It worked out well but it doesn’t matter if we don’t take care of (Mililani),” Miyahira said. “Trevor did a great job. He stuck to the plan and was very efficient.”
Ichimura didn’t allow a ball out of the infield. He retired 10 hitters by groundout and the other two by strikeout.
“This was a great start for us. We have a tough one (today) in Mililani but we’ve got to keep it rolling,” Ichimura said. “I felt really ready to go and I was really pumped up for this game.”
In earlier games of the tournament, Campbell’s Ayzek Silva threw 78 pitches in a three-hit shutout of Kamehameha-Maui, but he can’t come back to pitch until Friday.
Kailua’s Bryson Ballesteros threw 99 pitches in a two-hit shutout of Leilehua and is done for the tournament.
“He’s our guy. That’s what we needed out of him,” Miyahira said. “Hopefully it’s contagious.”
Cade Yonamine had an RBI double and Micah Yonamine went 3-for-3 with a double and drove in a run for ‘Iolani (15-5-1), which took advantage of eight errors by Kalani (11-5).
Eight of ‘Iolani’s nine runs off Kalani starter Riece Myers were unearned. A single and two-base error allowed Micah Yonamine to reach third base and score on an infield single by Shane Sasaki with two outs in the first inning.
‘Iolani added two runs in the third off of four Kalani errors and a dropped fly ball with two outs in the fourth allowed three more Raiders to score in the inning for a 9-0 lead.
Kalani’s Duke Knott was hit by a pitch to break up the perfect game in the top of the fifth and Noah Nakasone followed with an RBI double to the wall in right to break up the no-hitter and the shutout on the next pitch.
The game ended with one out in the bottom of the sixth inning when Sasaki lifted a fly ball to right field that was dropped, allowing two runners to score.
Sasaki reached base three different times on dropped fly balls.
I will say it, our boys played like girls. No excuses … this was our boys chance to shine and they peed their pants.