‘I just whacked it’

For many watching Tuesday’s Big Island Interscholastic Federation softball game between Hawaii Prep and Konawaena, Tiana Bertelmann-Tabac’s foul ball in the fifth inning may have been just an ordinary strike.

But Betsy Tranquilli thought it was a sign of bigger things to come, and the Hawaii Prep coach was right.

In the same at-bat, Bertelmann-Tabac laced a two-out, two-run triple that highlighted a six-run inning as Ka Makani erased a four-run deficit to beat the Wildcats 14-11 and snap a five-game losing streak.

Bertelmann-Tabac’s line drive to the gap in right-center came on a 1-2 pitch with two outs, chasing home Ranko Ono and Shayla Ignacio and tying the game at 6. Moments later, Bertelmann-Tabac scored on a wild pitch to give HPA (3-5) the lead for good.

“My swings were late, and I thought to myself, ‘I need to swing a little quicker,’ and I focused on the pitch, and I just whacked it,” Bertelmann-Tabac said.

Tranquilli said Bertelmann-Tabac had been struggling at the plate coming into the game. Before the sophomore came through with her hit, she fouled the ball straight back, indicating to Tranquilli that Bertelmann-Tabac was timing Konawaena junior pitcher Alexis Fujikawa’s pitches perfectly.

“She took a solid cut, and I knew she was on it,” Tranquilli said.

Bertelmann-Tabac said her two-run triple seemed to energize Ka Makani.

“Our dugout was kind of quiet, and everybody was not really there, and then the spirit all came in,” she said.

In the sixth inning, HPA established a comfortable 12-7 lead, taking advantage of two Konawaena errors and four walks by reliever Bethany Batangan to score four runs. Senior Leahi Lindsey drew a bases-loaded walk in the inning, and Camille Kiyota also walked with the bases loaded an inning later.

“We had a lot of errors, and that’s what hurt us,” Wildcats coach Shellie Grace said.

Konawaena (3-4) finished with six errors, but both teams feasted on free passes by the opposition.

Sophomore Kawena Lim-Samura earned the victory, giving up just three hits and striking out three in 6 1/3 innings. But eight of the 14 Konawaena batters she walked scored.

Fujikawa, who didn’t give up a hit through four innings, suffered the loss. She allowed eight runs — three earned — on two hits in 4 2/3 innings. Five of the 10 HPA batters she walked crossed home plate.

Batangan finished the game in the circle for Wildcats, giving up six runs — two earned — on three hits. She walked seven batters and struck out one.

At the plate, Batangan lined a two-out, two-run single in the bottom of the seventh off Ignacio, who relieved Lim-Samura with one out in the seventh. But with runners on first and third, Ignacio ended the game by fanning Fujikawa.

An inning earlier, HPA got through an even tighter situation that gave Ka Makani much-needed breathing room in the seventh.

With runners on first and third and one out, Lim-Samura faced junior Saxon Nagata, who slammed a third-inning two-run homer down the left-field line that gave Konawaena a 6-2 lead. Nagata hit the ball hard again in the sixth, drilling a screaming liner to center but right at center fielder Chancis Fernandez.

The sophomore then caught Konawaena’s Kaua Mitchell straying too far off first base, gunning her down for an inning-ending double play.

Two batters earlier, Fernandez committed an error that allowed Fujikawa to reach base, dropping a fly ball.

“These last two practices, we focused on not really dwelling on the mistakes but to just keep working on it and move forward,” Bertelmann-Tabac said. “During this game, we shook off the mistakes quickly, and we just tried to move forward and help each other out.”

Hawaii Prep 102 054 2 — 14 5 3

Konawaena 303 012 2 — 11 4 6