HILO – Josiah Factora turned into a timely ace for Hilo, which needed someone to step up, and steer its baseball season in the right direction.
The senior right-hander fired a five-hitter, and the Vikings defeated Waiakea 7-4 in the BIIF Division I semifinal series on Friday at the Warriors field.
Game 2 between Hilo (5-4) and Waiakea (8-2) is set for noon Saturday at the Warriors field. If necessary, Game 3 will follow.
“Everything was working, my fastball, curveball and changeup,” Factora said. “My mindset was we needed to win, to execute and win. Our bats were pretty good, and we went deep in counts and got into their bullpen. Today we played our game, and it feels pretty good to win.”
As the BIIF regular-season champion, the Warriors already have a berth to the HHSAA state tournament.
It’s been an unusual year for Hilo, which lost to Hawaii Prep 3-2 and Kohala 5-2 to start the season. The Cowboys toppled the Vikings for the first time since 2006.
To reach states for the seventh consecutive year, the Viks need to beat Waiakea, and the Keaau-Kealakehe semifinal winner in a best-of-three championship series.
Due to a heavy morning downpour, Game 1 was pushed back from a noon start to 3 p.m. and the Warriors spent close to two hours getting their field in game shape.
Factora allowed four runs (two unearned) on five hits and two walks, and struck out two, numbers that suggest he pitched to contact.
He did, and his best work was not letting the Warriors square up on his pitches. A good example was his first early threat in the third with two on and one out.
Factora struck out leadoff hitter Nate Minami on a curveball. Minami kept his hands back, and had it perfectly timed. But Factora spun his breaking ball just enough that Minami swung over it.
Next, Gehrig Octavio took a good hack, and hit a flyout to right field. On closer inspection, Octavio just didn’t hit it on the screws, missing the sweet spot by less than an inch.
Factora even put in overtime for his complete-game gem when his defense committed two errors in the seventh that led to two unearned runs.
For the other scoring, Minami had an RBI sacrifice fly in the fifth, and Octavio — Waiakea’s other talented sophomore — followed with a run-scoring single, when he hooked the ball over first base.
Senior second baseman Trevor Shimokusu was on base all day, 2 for 2 with a hit by pitch, giving hard rubs to Factora, who pretty much handled every other Warrior.
Hilo jumped on Waiakea starter Makoa Andres for three runs on five hits in the second, working deep counts and making him throw 37 pitches in the inning.
A theme of the day was two-out RBI base hits. The Vikings had three in the second: a Micah Bello RBI single, Austin Aina RBI single, and Joey Jarneski RBI single.
In the fifth, Hilo had a pair of two-out RBI hits: a Nick Antony run-scoring single, and a Bello RBI double. That was five two-out RBI hits, clutch hitting at its finest.
“That’s how you win. You’ve got to get those two-out hits with runners in scoring position,” Hilo coach Tony De Sa said. “Sometimes you do and sometimes you don’t. But we’ll take it.
Factora, the cleanup hitter, had an RBI sacrifice fly in the sixth, and a wild pitch scored another run.
Andres went four innings and took the loss. He gave up three runs on five hits and three walks. Bryce Yamashita pitched two innings, and allowed four runs on five hits and one walk, and whiffed two. Jamieson Hirayama tossed a scoreless seventh.
“Hilo played a good game,” Waiakea coach Rory Inouye said. “Tomorrow is a new day, and hopefully it’s sunny.”
Hilo 030 022 0 — 7 10 2
Waiakea 000 020 0 — 4 5 3