Pearl City keeps pace with Waipahu in OIA

Pearl City overcame some early missed chances to give itself a chance at some extra rest.

A bizarre first inning saw three Chargers baserunners caught off the bags on three separate plays, but Pearl City regrouped for clutch hits with runners in scoring position, earning a 5-0 win at Aiea on Saturday.

"You know, we were lucky we got the hits when we need them," Chargers coach Mitch Yamato said. "Also, like you seen, we ran ourselves out of a couple innings. That kind of stuff during the playoffs is gonna hurt. Every single run counts in the playoffs. Hopefully they’ll sharpen up when we get back to practice."

Pearl City (8-4) is tied with Waipahu for second place in the Oahu Interscholastic Association Red West. The teams split their head-to-head meetings and will flip a coin on Monday, Yamato said, to decide who gets a first-round bye in the league’s upcoming playoffs.

Gray skies and intermittent light rain lent a dramatic atmosphere to Aiea’s senior game. But Na Alii could not capitalize once Chargers starter Sean Milan left with back soreness in the third — because the team’s other ace, senior Kamalu Neal, picked up right where Milan left off for a five-inning save. Aiea was held to five hits and could not come through with a man on third in the first and seventh innings.

Milan and Neal combined for seven strikeouts. Neal, who started the game at catcher, reached base four times and had three RBIs batting third. Leadoff man Tanner Tokunaga smacked two doubles.

"I did that (catcher-to-pitcher move) a couple times in the past seasons," Neal said. "I was pretty comfortable with it. … I was pretty confident that my defense could back me up, and my offense could support me with runs."

Aiea (5-7) was playing for fourth in the West but settled for fifth, behind Mililani.

"Like I told the players, we had our chances," Aiea coach Ryan Kato said. "The end result is a direct reflection on the fact that we didn’t capitalize on our chances and they did. We came out on the short end today, but like I told these guys, I love these guys. They play hard. They understand the game. We can’t hang our heads on this. We’re in the playoffs, so we try to focus on the positive stuff. We’ve got season left."

Pearl City sophomore Shaye Higa belted a leadoff triple in the third, and Dane Kaneshiro lobbed a sacrifice fly to plate him for the game’s first run.

The Chargers chased Na Alii starter Jaycob Alcantra with a leadoff single by Jason Komoda in the fifth. Tokunaga followed with what was initially ruled a home run into the tennis courts beyond center field, but Kato appealed and it was changed to a ground-rule double, keeping Tokunaga and Komoda at second and third. Pearl City came through anyway two batters later with a two-run single to right by Neal. Matthew Tsutomi poked a 3-0 pitch into left field to tack on another score.

Neal added a two-out RBI single for an insurance run in the sixth.

Aiea got runners on second and third in the first and at the corners in the seventh, but could not capitalize.

Na Alii seniors Trevor Ling, Daylan Pajimola and Wyland Daguro were honored after the game.