Advantage, Pac-Five.
The Wolfpack beat Maryknoll 6-2 at Central Oahu Regional Park on Tuesday, pushing the Spartans to the brink of elimination.
The teams tangle again today. If Pac-Five wins again, it secures the ILH’s lone Division II state baseball berth. If Maryknoll bounces back, the Spartans would have to beat the Wolfpack again on Friday to return to the state tournament.
Pac-Five pitcher Owen Saito limited Maryknoll to two runs on three hits and had the Spartans off balance throughout. He threw first-pitch strikes to eight of the first nine batters he faced and needed only 84 pitches in his seven innings, 55 of them strikes.
The only time he had more than one runner on base was in the third, when he let an unearned run score but got out of trouble by striking out Joshua Muneno looking with runners on first and second. It was his only strikeout.
“I’m not going to strike everyone out,” Saito said. “I’m not a power pitcher. “I knew I had confidence in my defense. I knew they would make the plays.”
Saito, a sophomore, held Maryknoll hitless after the third inning to close it out to make the 6-2 lead he was pitching with hold up. Not bad for a kid who wasn’t even in the rotation when the playoffs began.
“He’s a pitcher; he will throw strikes every day,” Pac-Five coach Dennis Fukunaga said. “He’s automatic. He’s only a sophomore, nothing bothers him. That’s his asset, whether he is at shortstop or the mound. He is so composed.”
Pac-Five leads the season series between the teams 3-1-1, and the team to score in the first inning has won in every instance except for a 12-inning tie. The Wolfpack made that trend hold up on Tuesday.
Braydon Yabuki led off the game for the Wolfpack with a single to short and Landon Teramoto tried to move him over, but his bunt hit Muneno, Maryknoll’s starting pitcher, on the toe before it could roll foul. Braxton Kihara moved the runners to second and third with a bunt and Shawne Hampton drove in Yabuki with a sacrifice fly to center for the all-important first run. Muneno ended the threat by striking out Cody Schmidt.
Pac-Five took the advantage and ran with it in the bottom of the second, scoring three more times, when Kai Sasaki, Yabuki and Teramoto hit successive RBI singles.
Maryknoll got on the board with a run in the top of the third, but Pac-Five came back in the bottom on an RBI groundout by Ryllen Abeshima and a single by Brent Vargas to bring him home.
“We usually don’t do that,” Saito said. “We’ve been kind of off lately, but we have been picking it up now. Everyone was just focused and ready to go today. We need to make states.”
Despite their slight edge over the defending champion Spartans this year, Pac-Five hit the field on Wednesday with a sense of urgency after being battered by the Spartans 10-2 the last time they met. Now they have to do the same today or risk leaving their fate up to one unpredictable game of baseball.
“I think that game did something to (the players),” Fukunaga said. “It took a day before they could come back and realize that we had beaten them twice already. We got womped, but it’s anybody’s game as long as we take care of the ball and execute.”
At Central Oahu Regional Park
Maryknoll 001 100 0—2 3 4
Pac-Five 132 000 x—6 6 2
Joshua Muneno, Darren Lau (3) and Neal Nakasone. Owen Saito and Ryllen Abeshima. W—Saito. L—Muneno.
Leading hitters—Maryknoll: Jed Andrade 2-3, RBI. P5: Braydon Yabuki 2-4, RBI, Sb; Brent Vargas 2-2, RBI.
MIL Tournament
Championship
Baldwin 4, Maui 1
