Right-hander JT Navyac fired a four-hitter with eight strikeouts as No. 4 Saint Louis edged No. 1 Punahou 1-0 on a sunny Tuesday afternoon at Patsy Mink Central Oahu Regional Park.
Saint Louis opened the Interscholastic League of Honolulu season 1-0 as Navyac mixed a pinpoint fastball with a mesmerizing breaking ball from start to finish.
When he’s not on the mound, Navyac is the starting shortstop. In the summer, he played in California nonstop for six weeks. Since last season, Navyac packed on 15 pounds. He topped out at 88 mph on the speed gun Tuesday. This was only the second complete-game win of his career. In preseason, he hadn’t pitched more than four innings.
“I was just keeping myself under control, telling myself to stay calm, have fun. I looked serious out there, but I was having the time of my life,” Navyac said.
Saint Louis coach George Gusman and staff left the door wide open for their hurlers early on.
“We had an open competition for the preseason with no preconceived opinions and he was our most consistent guy, so he got the start today,” Gusman said. “He was a bulldog out there. We had a pitch count and got there. He didn’t want to come out. The fortunate part, we have a number of days before we play again on Saturday. We’ll run him, stretch and rest.”
The limit, in theory, was going to be 80 pitches. Navyac threw 101 pitches, but was efficient and did not walk a batter. He outdueled Tyler Shimabukuro, who permitted one unearned run and just three hits in five innings before yielding to Koa Eldredge. Shimabukuro walked one and didn’t strike out a batter.
“He was very efficient. I was somewhat surprised they took him out because he wasn’t doing bad at all, but a little luck sometimes goes a long way,” Gusman said.
Punahou coach Keenan Sue reminded his team that it will be another long ILH season.
“(Navyac) threw his off-speed for strikes and located his fastball well. We didn’t play poorly. JT was just dealing,” he said. “That was one of the better pitching performances we’ve seen in a while. They’ve got a little fire and that’s impressive. We’ve got to find our spark.”
Navyac, a commit to Cal State Fullerton, was on fire early. The senior struck out Eldredge, who started at center field, in the first frame. Then he struck out the side in the top of the second.
In the bottom of the second, Austin Teixeira drew a leadoff walk and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Navyac.
Punahou shortstop Kalae Harrison turned a ground ball by Pono de la Cruz into a forceout at third base for the second out. With Alva Arquette at the plate, Harrison then botched the next grounder, unable to get the ball out of the glove for a potential forceout at second. Evan Hu followed with a line drive down the right-field line, scoring de la Cruz from second base for the game’s only run.
