HILO – Hilo did everything better — hitting, pitching and playing much cleaner defense — to sweep Keaau in the BIIF Division I championship series on Friday night at Wong Stadium.
The Vikings knocked out the Cougars 11-1 in six TKO innings and 14-1, claiming the league title and a spot to the HHSAA state tournament while denying Keaau a historic one.
The Division I state tournament will be held May 6-9 on Oahu.
The Cougars (8-6) reached the championship for the first time, and are still searching for their first state berth since joining the varsity in 2002.
The Vikings (9-4) qualified for states for the seventh consecutive year, and during that stretch have won BIIF titles in 2009, ‘10, ‘13 and this season. BIIF runner-up Waiakea (9-3) will join Hilo at states.
In Game 2, Hilo sophomore Joey Jarneski was simply overpowering, finishing with a two-hitter and 10 strikeouts while retiring 16 of the last 17 hitters. He walked two and surrendered his only run when he hit Justin Quesada withthe bases loaded in the first.
From there, he struck out four in a row, and the only other base runner was Quesada in the fourth inning when he singled. But he was erased when he was thrown out at second on a steal attempt.
Keian Kanetani went the distance in the loss and finished with a seven-hitter. However, his defense did him no favors with six errors, which led to five unearned runs. The junior right-hander walked three and whiffed four.
Hilo junior left fielder Austin Aina batted 2 for 3, and went 4 for 5 for the series. He was the only one to pair hits.
Nick Antony batted 1 for 3 with two RBIs, and Josh Breitbarth smashed a two-run single in the bottom of the sixth for the 10-run mercy rule victory.
In Game 2, Hilo’s hitters kept running deep counts on Keaau starter Quesada, who racked up 84 pitches after four innings and from there everything changed.
The Vikings’ game plan of patience paid off in a 14-1 win.
“Our approach was to not help the pitcher, only swing at our pitch,” Hilo coach Tony De Sa said. “And not to be anxious. It’s easy to be anxious in a game like this. We kept battling with runners on base, even though it took a while to score. We couldn’t score early, but we kept the pressure on.”
Through four scoreless innings, it was a pitchers’ duel of a different kind. Quesada and Hilo starter Josiah Factora had a ton of base runners, but escaped trouble each time to throw goose eggs on the scoreboard.
In that span, Quesada stranded eight on base, including the sacks filled in the second, getting Jarneski to fly out to center field on a 2-0 hitter’s count. Likewise, Factora also left eight on base, two runners on in each inning.
Factora singled with one out in the fifth, and later scored on Noah Serrao’s RBI double. Then Micah Bello and Breitbarth followed with back-to-back walks. Aina, the No. 9 hitter, slammed a two-run single for a 3-0 lead.
The Cougars answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Factora walked three, the last free pass to Derek Kalani with the bases loaded.
Then someone pulled the plug on Keaau’s offense, and all that energy went to the Vikings, who found hitting contagious and piled up 15 hits against four pitchers.
Aina batted 2 for 2 with two RBIs, Bello 2 for 3 with an RBI, Serrao 3 for 4 with three RBIs and Jarneski 3 for 5. Antony and Factora each added a pair of hits.
It was that kind of day for Hilo, which put in its backups in a nine-run seventh in pinch hitting roles. Almost everyone did something to add to the lopsided score.
Eric Riveira, Noah Kalaloa-Richardson, Kahale Huddleston, Boston Cabarloc, and Ryan Ragual all drew consecutive walks, the last two getting an RBI on their free passes. Then Keanu Pinner had an RBI single.
“We got them in and everybody was happy,” De Sa said.
Quesada went 5 1/3 innings in the loss. The senior left-hander gave up four runs on nine hits and five walks, and whiffed three. Anson Kauwe, Elgin Santos and Dathan Wong Chong followed and allowed 10 runs on a combined six hits and seven walks.
It was a good game for four innings, and it wasn’t like the Cougars didn’t have their chances against Factora, who went six innings and whiffed six in the win. Somehow, the junior right-hander yielded only a run on four hits and eight walks.
“He battled, and he didn’t have his best stuff,” De Sa said.
Not that it made much of a difference in the lopsided defeat, but Keaau’s five errors led to four unearned runs, the most entertaining was a throw from center field that airmailed the catcher in the sixth to let in another score.
Antony cleaned up the seventh, and made it semi-interesting when he beaned a guy and walked two. But the sophomore right-hander canceled Keaau’s hopes of a 13-run comeback with a game-ending strikeout.
Game 2
Keaau 100 000 — 1 2 6
Hilo 410 402 — 11 7 0
Game 1
Hilo 000 032 9 — 14 15 1
Keaau 000 010 0 — 1 4 5