By Wes Nakama
Last year the Punahou softball team barely missed qualifying for the state tournament, falling just one game short.
This season, the Buff ‘n Blue are off to a clean 4-0 start in the ILH, making it known they want to be the team to beat.
They made a huge statement toward that goal Tuesday afternoon with an impressive 10-0 home victory over defending league champion Kamehameha, which fell to 1-2 after a game shortened to six innings due to the mercy rule.
“Punahou has a good lineup, they have a lot of good athletes from top to bottom,” Warriors coach Mark Lyman said. “It’s just going to be attrition, I think everybody just has to kind of settle down and figure out who they are and who they want to be, including us. We’re not the same team we were in the past, so we have to figure out our own identity. I think as everyone settles in and goes through the second round, we’ll see some changes. We have to make adjustments, and everybody else will be making adjustments.”
The Buff ‘n Blue appear to be at least one step ahead in that regard, after winning their first four games by scores of 13-1 (vs. Mid-Pacific), 12-1 (vs. ‘Iolani), 5-1 (vs. Maryknoll) and 10-0 (vs. Kamehameha).
Punahou took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning Tuesday, after Taryn Ho’s leadoff double into the gap in left-center field, followed by Li’i Brown’s one-out RBI single. The Buff ‘n Blue then made it 3-0 in the third after a leadoff walk, single to right, fielder’s choice grounder and infield throwing error.
That is how the score remained until the sixth, when Punahou exploded for seven runs after two outs. Taimane Ma’afala led off with a walk, advanced to second on Chaselyn Mokiau’s sacrifice and scored on Ho’s two-out double down the left field line. After Lexi Hinahara drew her third straight walk, Austen Kinney hit a two-run double into right-center and Brown followed with a monster two-run homer into the construction site beyond the fence in left-center to extend the lead to 8-0.
Ma’afala’s RBI single and a bases-loaded walk then scored the final two runs.
“The girls have been outstanding, we played preseason games scoring 15 and 12 against Leilehua and Kapolei, who are top OIA teams,” Buff ‘n Blue coach Boy Eldredge said. “Our first two (ILH) games we had 12 and 13 runs, so we’ve been excited about our bats.”
In the meantime, pitcher Paige Brunn was her usual steady self, tossing a two-hitter with four strikeouts and two walks.
“The early lead took the pressure off,” said Brunn, a senior in her fourth varsity season. “Lexi called a good game (as catcher), she really mixed pitches around, so we worked inside and outside, and then high and low. So not staying in one spot.”
Eldredge said that having faced national-level hitters the previous three seasons like Maryknoll’s Nelly McEnroe-Marinas (now a standout at Oklahoma) and Jenna Sniffen (Arizona), Kamehameha’s Mua Williams (Georgia) and ‘Iolani’s Ailana Agbayani (Oklahoma) has taught Brunn and Hinahara how to be very careful in avoiding mistakes.
“That’s the lesson they were learning the past years, they would be pitching a good game and then make that (one) mistake,” Eldredge said. “Fortunately they learned how not to do it, they learned how to keep things good and tight. This year they are just doing all the little things right. You get a double, and then all of a sudden they make the right pitch to get the third out. It’s really been fun to watch them work together.”
Lyman said Brunn’s poise is one of her key strong points.
“She’s a veteran, she’s been pitching since her freshman year, she knows how to manage a game,” said. “She knows what she can do, she doesn’t panic when she gives up a hit here and there, and she was able to just kind of put it together on us today. We weren’t able to string any hits together. She’s a smart pitcher, she knows what she’s doing up there.”
Photos: Garin Paguio
