Kalani tops Moanalua, 13-3, moves into first place in OIA East
By Wes Nakama
Despite some key losses to graduation, the Kalani softball team showed Wednesday night it is now the team to beat in the OIA Eastern Division with a resounding 13-3 victory over Moanalua in a prime-time TV showdown at McKinley. The game was shortened to five innings due to the 10-run rule.
The victory ascended the Falcons to first place in the East at 4-0; Na Menehune fell to second place, a half-game back at 4-1.
Moanalua actually struck first in the top of the first inning after leadoff batter Alia Anzai walked, stole second, advanced to third on a groundout and scored on a wild pitch.
Kalani responded immediately with six runs in the bottom half, highlighted by a run-scoring error, bases-loaded walks by Tien Saiki and Kelsie Taketa and RBI singles from Shya Morinaga and Kira Matsumoto.
The Falcons tacked on a run in the second inning after Naomi Stremick led off with a line single to center, with courtesy runner Vy Danh taking second base on a passed ball and scoring on Layna Faria's single to left for a 7-1 lead.
"We kind of designed our batting lineup to be that way, allowing batters to be who they are, to the strengths that they have," Kalani coach Iris Stremick said. "They don't have to (all) be the No. 4 batter, they can be strong in whatever they do, and we place them that way to generate runs. We're really building from ground-up this year, we have to be creative and take advantage of mistakes that are made. We really are working hard on that, just kind of reading balls, reading pitches, and advancing (base-to-base). We do have a fairly young team."
Na Menehune took advantage of a run-scoring error and Ramzy Bumagat's RBI single to close it to 7-3 in the fourth, but the Falcons got a run back in the bottom half on Paityn Hamasaki's RBI double off the fence in center field to stretch the lead to 8-3.
In the bottom of the fifth, Emma Fujino scored on a two-out error, and then with the bases loaded Faria blasted a deep drive way over the left field fence for a walk-off grand slam.
"It was kind of inside, and she was throwing me a lot inside so I just pulled it and my timing was right so I was able to hit it," said Faria, a senior first baseman who went 3 for 4 with the home run, five RBIs and two runs scored. "The seniors (last year) really set the tone for us, and we're just following their lead. This year is different, we had to move a lot of players around, but everyone does their job and we just compete. I think that's really helped us. Just 100 percent effort.
"We have a lot of fight in us, we just want to win, we have that competitiveness. So we just keep on driving."
Photos: Gavin Yasunari
