By Wes Nakama
Three days after being upset by Pac-Five, ‘Iolani rebounded in a big way to defeat Saint Louis, 14-3, in more wild ILH baseball action Tuesday afternoon at Ala Wai Field.
Trailing 3-2 in the top of the third inning, the Raiders scored two runs to take a 4-3 lead and then exploded for six runs in the fourth and then extended it to 14-3 after six innings — enough to win due to the 10-run rule. ‘Iolani improved to 6-2, in sole possession of second place and just a half game behind league leader Kamehameha (6-1).
The Crusaders fell to 5-3 and into a tie for third with Mid-Pacific. The Raiders and MPI will face off at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in a Spectrum OC TV game at Central O’ahu Regional Park.
“We gotta get back to work, we have a tough one on Thursday,” ‘Iolani coach Kurt Miyahira said. “We can’t get too high or too low in this league, you just gotta keep playing and try to keep focused.”
The Raiders needed that focus Tuesday after watching their 2-0 lead quickly disappear when Saint Louis scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning, on a passed ball and RBI singles by Kaili Kane and Chase Sutherland. ‘Iolani got the lead back in the third after Makana Oniate’s sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch.
The Raiders then made it 6-3 in the fourth on Trey Chong Kee’s two-run single to left, followed by Oniate’s two-run single and then Chase Thompson’s sacrifice fly and Judah Ota’s RBI single to make it 10-3. ‘Iolani then added a run in the fifth and three in the sixth before shutting out the Crusaders in the bottom half to end the game.
“It was a long day,” Saint Louis coach Benny Agbayani said. “They swung the bat well, and we didn’t, and they took advantage of that. And that’s what baseball is all about — the team that puts the bat on the ball and puts it in play, they should come out with the victory.”
In the meantime, Raiders starter Kasyn Amazaki settled down after a rocky start and finished with four and two-thirds innings pitched, only one earned run allowed on three hits. He struck out two and walked one.
“I think he (Amazaki) made his adjustment, after the (first) couple innings,” Agbayani said. “That’s why he got the win today, he pitched very well.”
Miyahira said Amazaki has shown improvement since the beginning of the season.
“Kasyn did his job, he kept us in the game and battled,” Miyahira said. “Every start, he’s progressively gotten better and better, and that’s all we can ask of our guys, is to keep working to get better every day. He’s shown up to work every day and worked hard. I’m proud of him, I’m happy for him. (Today) he settled in, he’s a competitor and he wants to do well. He understood where he needed to be just to compete and be effective, and I think he did a great job with that.”
Cole Yonamine led ‘Iolani’s 14-hit attack by going 4 for 5 with two doubles and one RBI, Mana Lau Kong and Chong Kee each went 2 for 3 with two RBIs, Oni Dawson went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and Oniate went 1 for 3 with three RBIs.
Kane went 2 for 3 with one RBI and Sutherland went 1 for 2 with one RBI to lead the Crusaders.
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