By: Wes Nakama
WAIPI’O — The ILH Baseball Tournament can be all about second chances, and Saint Louis made the most of its “hana hou” opportunity Wednesday afternoon by rallying past ‘Iolani, 5-3, at Patsy T. Mink Central O’ahu Regional Park.
The victory advanced the Crusaders (12-4-1) to Friday’s tournament title game and — just as importantly — punched their ticket to the Wally Yonamine Foundation State Championships set for May 2 through May 5, by virtue of their runner-up finish in the regular season and a guaranteed top-2 spot in the ILH Tournament. ‘Iolani fell to 10-6-1 and into Thursday’s 3:30 p.m. tournament elimination game at CORP against regular season champ Kamehameha (12-5).
Saint Louis squandered its chance to win that regular season title last Saturday when it suffered a stunning 4-1 loss to last place Damien (3-11).
“We took it hard, the entire team took it hard,” Crusaders coach George Gusman said. “But we went back and noticed some things we were not doing offensively, so we tried to get them to understand what we want. And it’s been showing (this week).”
Saint Louis started a bit slow on Wednesday, as ‘Iolani took a 3-0 lead in the top of the third inning after Kaimana Lau Kong’s RBI single to left field, Brandon Wada’s sacrifice fly and a one-out infield error. But the Crusaders immediately responded with five runs in the bottom half, on Tanner Chun’s two-run single to left, a one-out infield error, Jacob Villacorte’s RBI single to center and Chyler DeSilva’s squeeze bunt.
That proved to be enough run support for starter Kolby Gushiken, who proceeded to toss three shutout innings before allowing a leadoff walk to Travis Ujimori in the seventh and giving way to Chun, who came in as the closer from center field. After the next batter flied out to center field, Cole Yonamine hit a double to right center and Cole Ide drew a walk to load the bases, with the tying run in scoring position.
But the next batter grounded to first, where Villacorte fielded it cleanly and threw a strike to home for the forceout. After running a full count, setting all three base runners in motion, Chun got a flyout to right field to earn the save and end the game.
“My approach was just to put the ball in the strike zone and let my defense do the work,” Chun said. “I trust those guys with all my heart, so if (the batter) swings and misses, he swings and misses. But I had to find the zone and pound the zone at all times.”
Gusman said he was pleased at how both Gushiken and Chun handled stressful situations, with Gushiken escaping a major threat in the sixth when the Raiders got runners at first and third with dangerous batters Bruin Agbayani and Lau Kong coming up. Gushiken got them to fly out to right and center, respectively.
“Kolby was the guy, he got roughed up in that one inning but then managed to get through to the seventh,” Gusman said. “He’s never gone that long, so he’s the guy who got us there. And everybody’s heart was beating kind of quick (in the seventh), you never know if they can do it until they’re in that situation, so I’m just happy for Tanner and the rest of our guys. It’s a great win over a great team.”
‘Iolani now is in a similar situation as last year, when the Raiders won five straight elimination games before falling to Saint Louis for the overall title.
“We’ll come back (Thursday), we’ve got the opportunity to do it again and we’re grateful for that,” ‘Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira said. “I think we’ll play hard and give it all they got. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen, but they’ll come out here and lay it all out there. It’s a great group of guys I enjoy being around, and hopefully we’ll be fortunate enough to be around a little longer. Our guys fight, they keep fighting and keep playing, and I’m proud of them. We just gotta do it again (Thursday).”
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