Kea Vierra’s role usually centers on getting things started for the Kailua baseball team.

On Saturday, he was a central figure in closing out an unorthodox win for the Surfriders.

Prior to their regularly scheduled matchup, Kailua and Roosevelt first had to complete Friday’s series opener, which was suspended in the top of the seventh with the teams tied 6-6.

Vierra, who was Kailua’s catcher when the Rough Riders tied the game Friday, went to the mound on Saturday and threw 31⁄3 innings of scoreless relief. Then with two out in the bottom of the 10th and a runner on second, he drilled a single to center to give fifth-ranked Kailua a 7-6 win and end the game about 20 hours after its first pitch.

Vierra added two more hits from the leadoff spot in the next game and the Surfriders rode the momentum to a 7-1 OIA Red East win to stay atop the division standings.

“We expect that out of Kea,” Kailua coach Corey Ishigo said. “He’s our leader; he works hard and that’s how he plays the game. So we expect him to get us going.”

Friday’s game at Kailua initially ended with the Surfriders ahead 6-5 when a Roosevelt player was called out for violating the no-jewelry rule and the apparent tying run was erased. Roosevelt’s appeal contending that the player should have been ejected rather than called out was granted, forging the tie that carried over into Saturday.

The game resumed at Stevenson Middle School field, and Vierra hit the first batter he faced before retiring 10 of Roosevelt’s next 11 hitters.

The Surfriders put runners on base in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but Roosevelt’s Leighton Kahooilihala escaped each time with help from solid defense.

In the bottom of the 10th, Kahaku Iaea drew a leadoff walk and pinch runner Kaliko Kaimana stole second. Kahooilihala then got a strikeout and a pop-up before Vierra’s line drive ended a spirited duel.

“We expected them to be on their game, so we had to bring it,” Vierra said. “I think everyone felt the intensity of the first game.”

The Surfriders struck first in the second game on Kaipo Oamilda-Scholtz’s two-out RBI double in the top of the first and steadily pulled away while Iaea shut down the Roosevelt offense in his first pitching assignment of the season.

Iaea held the Rough Riders to three hits while striking out five over five efficient innings.

“He mixed (pitches) really well, throwing every pitch for a strike in any count,” Ishigo said.

Iaea also contributed an RBI single in the third inning as part of Kailua’s 10-hit attack.

“We’re leaving a lot of runners in scoring position. Balls still aren’t jumping the way I want it to. But we’re hitting the ball to all fields and it was a better job today than yesterday,” Ishigo said.

Kailua will take a 9-1 record into a series with

No. 8 Kaiser (8-2) to close the regular season. While Kailua’s sweep left Roosevelt at 3-7 in the division, Rough Rider coach Les Loo saw progress in his team’s feisty performance.

“(Kailua’s) the first-place team, so it showed that they’re capable of playing up to that caliber of talent,” Loo said.

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