WAIPAHU — Waianae didn’t field its top starting lineup, but still put on a clinic of fundamentally sound baseball to defeat Hawaii Preparatory Academy 7-0 on a sun-filled Wednesday at Hans L’ Orange Field.
The No. 3 seed Seariders saved senior ace Kekoa Kaluhiokalani Jr., and relied on junior right-hander Jerzy Ramento, who threw six shutout innings in the quarterfinals of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association Division II state tournament.
In another quarterfinal, Kamehameha-Hawaii routed Nanakuli 28-5.
The Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Warriors (13-1-1) play Waianae (13-1) in the semifinals at 10 a.m. today at Les Murakami Stadium in Honolulu.
HPA (10-6) plays Nanakuli (10-5) in a consolation game at 11:30 a.m. today in Waipahu.
Ramento silenced the Ka Makani bats with a whiplash fastball and sinking off-speed stuff. Iokepa Kaauwai, a sophomore left-hander, polished off the last inning. Ramento surrendered just four hits and no walks, and struck out five.
Waianae coach Kekoa Kaluhiokalani acknowledged he was nervous about not starting his son, who has the edge in big-game experience, especially against an unseen foe.
“Jerzy has pitched the best all season. But if it were a championship, I would start Kekoa because he’s a senior,” he said. “I don’t think we could go wrong with either one.”
Ka Makani coach Jordan Hayslip had a similar decision, starting junior right-hander Koa Ellis, who throws harder than DJ Sekiya, a soft-tossing junior left-hander who relies on catching corners and offsetting timing.
Ellis went the distance in the loss. He walked two and whiffed one. The Seariders piled up 13 hits.
Like his coaching counterpart, Hayslip went with the hot hand instead of his team’s ace.
“Both of them are aces. Koa has been throwing well down the stretch, and we went with him,” Hayslip said. “They’re a good hitting team. Their pitcher threw strikes, got ahead of hitters, and did a great job.
“Koa pitched very well. His curveball was working, but we had too many errors behind him. It’s good to come over and play at states. It’s always a good experience to play against the state’s best.”
In the first inning, the Oahu Interscholastic Association champion Seariders used patience and sharp bat speed to take a 1-0 lead, forcing Ellis to throw 28 pitches, and timing his fastball. Two batters after Kaluhiokalani walked, Tavita Lalau slammed an 0-2 fastball up the middle for an RBI single.
Ellis had little help from his defense, which committed four errors that led to three unearned runs. Waianae had two errors, but both were harmless.
Cyrus Inglis batted 2 for 3 to lead HPA, which stranded just three on base.
Misfortune fell HPA’s way in the second, when an error and well-placed base hit — Chaestin Nash-Santiago stuck out his bat for a single — helped load the bases. Then Kaluhiokalani lofted a sacrifice fly to center field to score an unearned run for a 2-0 lead.
HPA had two on with one out in the second, but a sacrifice bunt moved both runners into scoring position. With one out left, the smallball move backfired when Ryan Jarvill struck out.
HPA had a fundamentally unsound third when an error, balk, wild pitch and passed ball let in two more runs for a 4-0 deficit. At that point, Ellis had a 63-pitch count; he finished with 100. Lalau had the best day for Waianae, going 2 for 4 with four RBIs. Nash-Santiago, Kaluhiokalani, Darion Domingo, Niko Kala-Mahiai and Ramento each added two hits, showing a lot of firepower up and down the lineup.
“Waianae has good ballplayers, and they play as a team. I thought we could have done better,” Ellis said. “My stuff was all right, nothing great. My curveball was working a little bit, but they caught on and started whacking my curve. Even when I threw my curve on a first pitch, they were whacking it.
“Hopefully, we’ll come back next year and work harder. It’s a good experience. We know how it feels to be here. It feels good but the loss kills it. But we’ll come back and play hard on Thursday. We’re here to play.”
Waianae 112 012 0 — 7 13 2
HPA 000 000 0 — 0 4 4
