While the town of Mililani was celebrating its 50th anniversary with fireworks, the high school’s baseball team did a little celebrating of its own Saturday night.
After waiting 21 years to bring home its second OIA championship, Mililani held off Kailua 5-4 in dramatic fashion in the league final at Les Murakami Stadium.
It didn’t come easy.
Nicholas Faulkner, a pinch runner for the Surfriders (12-3), was standing on third base in the bottom of the seventh, 90 feet away from scoring the tying run. With two outs, one of Kailua’s big hitters, Stone Parker, came to the plate and nailed a line drive to center field right into the glove of Shea Yamaguchi. The title was finally in Mililani’s hands and the first-base side of the stands erupted.
“Get behind it; if it’s in the air, catch the ball,” Yamaguchi said he was thinking when he heard the crack of the bat. “This feels good. It feels really good.”
Noah Domogsac said the team would “party” afterward and clarified that it meant hanging out and eating dinner with the rest of the team.
Domogsac delivered a key hit and fortune shined on what transpired. In the top of the first, he drilled what looked like it would be a single to center. Kailua center fielder Dakota Kadooka, however, tried to make a diving catch. Instead, the ball got past him and Domogsac eventually slid into home just ahead of the throw with an inside-the-park grand slam.
“It was a 2-0 pitch and all I was thinking was trying to bring up my next batter,” Domogsac said. “I saw a fastball right down the middle and I took it. He dove. I was thinking I was only going to get to third, but Coach waved me home, so I was all happy. We worked hard for this thing.”
Kadooka’s aggressiveness has saved No. 7 Kailua before. Not this time.
“Dakota has been making plays for us for two years,” Surfriders coach Corey Ishigo said. “We live and die with whatever he decides to do. We’ll continue fighting for him. You can’t say the loss was on him.”
The Trojans (12-4) went up 5-0 in the second on Micah Kaohu’s bases-loaded walk, but Kailua crept back. Parker hit an RBI groundout in the second, and Cody Riturban added a run-scoring single in the third to make it 5-2. In the fifth, Dylan Kurahashi-Choy Foo’s RBI double and Parker’s RBI single got it to 5-4.
“I was just telling my boys the other day that sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good,” Mililani coach Mark Hirayama said. “We got a couple of breaks early. Then they got a few breaks that went their way. They wouldn’t go away and battled to the end. Give them credit on that. I’m proud of the way we persevered and hung in there and took care of business.”
Cole Mayeshiro, the last of three Mililani pitchers, earned the win. He went 12⁄3 innings and also got two key outs in the sixth with a Kailua runner on third.
“Cole does whatever we need,” Hirayama said. “He’s always ready to go.”
Ryan Inouye, a Kailua freshman, went 51⁄3 innings in scoreless, two-hit relief of losing pitcher Kurahashi-Choy Foo.
Both teams are headed to the Division I state tournament, May 8-11.
