by Wes Nakama

The Maryknoll softball team proved Tuesday night that walking can actually be a high-impact exercise after all.

The Spartans took advantage of 11 bases on balls in addition to nine hits to pull away from Kamehameha, 13-3, in an ILH showdown at McKinley shortened to six innings due to the 10-run rule. Maryknoll improved to 6-3 in league play, good for sole possession of second place behind Punahou (8-0). The Warriors fell to third place at 5-4.

Kamehameha closed Tuesday’s score to 3-2 on Ena Garcia’s two-out, bases-loaded walk on a 3-2 pitch, but the Spartans responded in the bottom of the frame on Palehua Silva’s RBI single to left field and Kaiya Miller’s sacrifice fly to right, pushing the lead to 5-2.

The Warriors got a run back in the fourth after Bobbi Cambra scored on a two-out, infield error to cut it to 5-3, but Maryknoll answered with three runs in the bottom half, on a bases-loaded walk, Silva’s RBI infield single and Kasi Cruz’s sacrifice fly to center to make it 8-3. The Spartans then extended the lead to 9-3 in the fifth on Kyla Abad’s two-out, run-scoring triple into the left field corner.  

In the meantime, Maryknoll starter Cruz settled down in the final two and one-third innings, retiring the last seven batters in order, including her striking out the side in the fifth.

This was after giving up a first-inning solo home run by Cambra, and then the single runs in the third and fourth.

“From last year to this year, she has matured ten-fold,” Spartans coach John Uekawa said of Cruz. “She never puts her head down, everything is driving forward, and the team feeds off of that. Her demeanor never changes.”

Cruz said she felt more comfortable as the game went along, and the increasing lead provided a cushion that helped.

“I knew I just had to flush it (the early home run) and focus on the next batter,” said Cruz, a senior right-hander. “I got more confident (in later innings).”

Meanwhile, the Maryknoll bats kept providing more support. Karley Sapolu blasted a three-run homer over the left field fence to make it 12-3 in the sixth, and then Abad stroked a sharp one-out single to right field to bring in the game-ending run. 

“Props to them, they played well and did what they needed to do,” Warriors coach Mark Lyman said. “They took advantage of some mistakes that we had. We couldn’t come back from the walks. We tried to get them to hit the pitches we wanted them to hit.”

Uekawa said the Spartans have grown since dropping three of four games last month.

“We’re a very young team — we have only three seniors and one junior,” Uekawa said. “From the beginning of the season, it would take a lot of hard work and confidence. We’re playing sophomores and freshmen who never played (varsity) before … and the ILH is different. We knew it was going to take time, but we knew we had the talent.”