Hilo coach Baba Lancaster was the first to admit he made a mistake coaching his team on Tuesday.
Fortunately for him, his kids had his back, as Dylan Villanueva hit the go-ahead RBI double to right-center with two outs in the eighth inning to give Hilo a 4-3 win over Moanalua in the Division I opening round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA State Baseball Championships at Les Murakami Stadium.
Villanueva drove in two runs and senior Makenna Wakakuwa worked the final 22⁄3 scoreless innings on the mound to earn the win. Lancaster said after the game he pulled starting pitcher Jayden Geraci too early.
“Like I told them earlier, I kind of messed up this game, so they picked me up and got the win,” Lancaster said. “(Geraci) didn’t have his good stuff and we were thinking to get him out and save him so he can come back Friday, but we need to get there first.”
Hilo, which advances to play OIA champion Campbell in today’s first quarterfinal at 10 a.m., led 3-1 entering the bottom of the fifth inning when Lancaster decided to pull Geraci after he had thrown 75 pitches.
Freshman KJ Marzo came in and promptly walked the first batter and gave up a bunt single to put the tying runs on base with nobody out.
With two outs and runners at second and third, Shayde Koga hit a slow roller to third, forcing Villanueva to make a tough play at first. Koga legged out an infield single, but Villanueva’s errant throw also allowed Jake Ferreira to score from second to tie the game at 3-3.
“He’s only a freshman, but I thought he could pull through,” Lancaster said of Marzo. “A lot of them don’t have state tournament experience, so you’ve got to get them some somehow. Makenna was big for us. He’s always been like that. He’s tough on the mound.”
Villanueva pulled through with two outs in the eighth inning after Legend Lancaster drew a one-out walk. Lancaster stole second and moved to third before Villanueva lifted a fly ball just enough into the gap in right-center to fall between two outfielders for the lead.
“I was just trying to stay clam and do it for the team and do it for Hilo,” Villanueva said. “We’re super excited. We just want to win the koa (trophy).”
Geraci allowed two hits in four innings with two walks and two strikeouts.
Moanalua jumped out to a 1-0 lead with two out in the bottom of the second inning when Reyn Ikenaga reached second base on a ball that was initially caught.
Hilo second baseman Nui Sato made a nice running catch in shallow center but then collided with center fielder Devin Saltiban and the umpires ruled he dropped the ball, giving Ikenaga a double in the official scorebook.
Dawson Sugawa drew a walk and Ferreira worked an eight-pitch at-bat before reaching on a fielder’s choice that was thrown away at second by the shortstop, allowing Ikenaga to score.
Hilo took its first lead in the top of the fourth inning when Villanueva laid down a sacrifice squeeze to score Journey Leialoha, who had singled with one out. Boston Kobayashi followed with a bloop into shallow right field that fell under the glove of a diving Ferreirra to plate two more runs and put the Vikings ahead 3-1.
Koen Smith tossed seven innings for Na Menehune and allowed three runs on six hits with two walks and six strikeouts.
Mililani 2, Saint Louis 1
Malosi Mata’afa-Alferos and Ethan Murakoshi singled home both of the Trojans runs with two outs in the top of the seventh inning and Mililani (11-6) rallied to beat the Crusaders (13-6-1) to cap the lowest-scoring first round since the tournament expanded to four Day 1 games in 1969.
Kai Hirayama closed out Saint Louis after the Trojans got to Saint Louis starter Jacob Villacorte, who took a two-hitter into the top of the seventh inning.
With a runner on second and one out, Ethan Bagasol singled to right field. Hirayama tried to score from second but was thrown out by Ryder Okimoto for the second out.
Mata’afa-Alferos was down 0-1 in the count when he stung a ground ball past the second baseman to drive in Bagasol to tie the game.
After a throwing error put runners at the corners, Murakoshi came through with a single to left to bring in Mata’afa-Alferos for the winning run.
Saint Louis scored its only run on a two-out RBI single by Matthew Pavao to drive in Chyler De Silva in the second inning.
The Crusaders were 1-for-11 with runners in scoring position.
Hirayama scattered seven hits over seven innings with one walk and five strikeouts to earn the win.
Villacorte was the hard-luck loser, giving up four hits and one earned run in 62⁄3 innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.
It’s the second year in a row both ILH teams lost in the first round.
Kamehameha-Maui 2, Kailua 0
Senor right-hander Raige Velez tossed a four-hit shutout and Ziah Chang went 2-for-4 with an RBI double to lead the Warriors (9-6) to just their second win in state-tournament history.
Velez struck out six in a 106-pitch performance to lead Kamehameha-Maui into the nightcap of today’s quarterfinals against No. 1 seed Kamehameha.
“It’s just getting the kids to believe in themselves,” said first-year Kamehameha-Maui coach Shane Dudoit, who led Baldwin to the state title the last time the tournament was held on Oahu in 2018. “Baseball is a game of hits and pitches and X’s and O’s, but having the kids getting to believe in themselves is something we practice.”
Japheth Joaquin singled to lead off the top of the fifth and scored on Chang’s two-out RBI double to left.
Duke Aloy reached second on an error to start the sixth inning and moved to third on a bunt and scored on Bransyn Hong’s sacrifice fly for a 2-0 lead.
Kailua (10-6) had the first two runners reach base in the fourth inning, but KS-Maui got out of the inning on a 1-4-3-6-5-2-6 caught stealing of courtesy runner Jayden Ogomori at the plate.
“It wasn’t something that we practiced. We just take care of the ball. That’s all we can ask our guys to do,” Dudoit said.
KS-Maui’s only other win in the state tournament was in 2007 against Kalani. The Warriors were making their second appearance since 2011 after finishing second in the MIL by beating Maui in the second-place tiebreaker.
Velez tossed a four-hit shutout in that game against Maui that started on Wednesday and was finished on Friday due to weather.
“He is our ace pitcher. When you get to the state tournament, you’ve got to win every game to get to the next game and we felt confident with him on the mound for us,” Dudoit said.
