Kamehameha denies Pac-Five, 5-1, to win ILH title
By Wes Nakama
WAIPAHU -- Finally finding a way how to turn back the Pack for good, Kamehameha denied dangerous Pac-Five, 5-1, Thursday afternoon to win its fourth straight ILH baseball championship.
The victory at Patsy T. Mink Central O'ahu Regional Park improved the Warriors to 12-2 and earned them the league's top berth and first-round bye in this coming week's Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Tournament. The Wokfpack, which was trying to win the program's first Division I title, fell to 9-4 and into Wednesday's 7 p.m. first round feature game against Kaiser at Hans L'Orange Park.
Kamehameha finished first in the ILH regular season, but lost to Pac-Five, 10-5 , in the ILH Tournament second round and then again, 2-1, in Tuesday's tournament final. That second loss forced Thursday's winner-take-all game for the overall league championship.
"They are so good," Warriors coach Daryl Kitagawa said of the Wolfpack. "They are so good, they made us better. We basically played four games against them in a week -- every game super tight. Today was 5-1, but it was a super close game."
The game's first batter, Pac-Five shortstop Alika Ahu, drew 10 pitches before finally earning a walk. He advanced to second on Jaxon Cadiz's sacrifice bunt and to third on a groundout to short, but was left stranded after a deep flyout to center field.
Kamehameha took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first on Kupono Barkdull's bases-loaded walk and Kino Adams' run-scoring groundout to short. The Warriors then made it 3-0 in the second inning after Mahiehie Kawai reached on a one-out single to right field, advanced to second on an infield error and to third on a wild pitch before scoring on Kaikea Patoc-Young's infield groundout.
The Wolfpack cut it to 3-1 in the top of the third after loading the bases with two outs on a hit batter and two walks, with Cadiz scoring on Keaka Bennett's infield single.
But Kamehameha stretched the lead to 5-1 in the bottom of the third by putting two runners on with a single and walk, setting the table for Iona Uyehara's two-run double to left.
That was more than enough cushion for Warriors starting pitcher Barkdull, who went five innings, allowing just two hits and striking out five. He was relieved by Pono Kong, who finished out the game with two shutout innings, allowing only one hit and striking out two, walking one.
"(Barkdull) gutted it out, because he put guys on base, walked some guys," Kitagawa said. "But it was a gutty performance by him, I'm super happy for him. And then Pono coming in to close it out, was nice to see."
Pac-Five coach Reyn Sugai agreed with Kitagawa in saying the game was closer than the score might indicate, and that little things ultimately made the difference.
"We were close today, (but) I just think we just didn't fully lock in the way we could have with two strikes," Sugai said. "We had some good at-bats, but things didn't really go our way. The more times you can put the ball in play, put some pressure on them and give yourself opportunities to score, the better chance you'll have."
Kitagawa said Barkdull, Kong and others on the staff had to adjust to primary roles this season, with the graduation of current UCLA pitcher Elai Iwanaga and Nevada's Greyson Osbun, among others.
Same went for the rest of the team.
"They're kind of unknown, because they didn't have many opportunities last year," Kitagawa said. "But I knew -- or was hoping -- they were good. I knew they had the talent. But if they could put it together on the field ... was kind of an unknown.
"But I'm happy for them, all the kids, because they busted their tails every day."