By Wes Nakama
WAIPI’O — After a relatively smooth journey through the ILH’s treacherous baseball gauntlet, Kamehameha clinched at least a tie for the regular season title Tuesday afternoon by holding off Damien, 5-1, at Patsy T. Mink Central O’ahu Regional Park.
The Warriors improved to 11-1, two games ahead of second-place Saint Louis (9-3) with two games remaining. Kamehameha’s “magic number” to win the regular season outright is 1, meaning a victory over Punahou on Saturday OR a loss by Saint Louis to Pac-Five later that afternoon would clinch the title and state tournament berth that comes with it.
“This was huge,” Warriors coach Daryl Kitagawa said of Tuesday’s victory over Damien, which fell to 6-5. “There were elements (strong, swirling wind) today, and (the Monarchs) are a scrappy group, well-coached, super plenny respect for them. We did enough in that one inning after they tied the game.”
Kamehameha took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second inning after Logan Akaka reached on an infield error, stole second and then scored on a passed ball that rolled all the way to the backstop with the catcher not being able to immediately locate it.
Damien tied it at 1-1 in the bottom of the fourth after Makana Freitas was hit by a pitch with two outs, and then pinch runner Takeo Tsukiyama sprinted around the bases and scored on Max Dentrinis’ double into the gap at left-center.
“We saw that they were beating teams, so we gotta treat everyone the same because we know it’s the ILH and anyone can beat anyone at any time,” said Warriors pitcher Greyson Osbun, who struck out eight and walked two in five innings. “Weird things can happen, so we gotta take everyone with the same plan of attack and play to our level, play Kamehameha baseball.”
In the top of the fifth inning, the Warriors loaded the bases with no outs after a hit batter, infield error and walk. The Monarchs brought their infield in to protect the run, and leadoff batter Logan Sanchez proceeded to slap a grounder through the 5-6 hole to bring home one run to break the tie, then Taj Uyehara’s groundout to second brought home another to make it 3-1. Kiai Sylvester then singled to center to score two more runs and extend the lead to 5-1.
Damien coach Skyler Tengan said facing an NCAA Division I-bound (Nevada) pitcher like Osbun influenced his decision to bring the infield in to try and protect that first run.
“When we face a tough pitcher like that, we’re going to have to cut off every run that we can,” Tengan said. “We had to try our best to just hold them to one run and we brought the infield up. They put the ball in the play where we weren’t, and they were able to score some runs. So hat’s off to them.”
After Osbun retired three of four batters in the fifth, he was relieved by Kainoa Kaneshiro, who set down six of the seven batters he faced to close out the victory.
Tengan said Kamehameha’s consistent staff is what has separated the Warriors and kept them in first place all season long.
“If you see their scores, their pitching is pretty unbelievable,” Tengan said. “They throw strikes, they throw hard, they mix speeds, they keep you off-balanced … it’s tough to handle. They’re holding guys down to two or three runs a game, and they only gotta score four, so they’re going to be successful.”
