HILO — Waiakea’s Skylar Thomas watched Hilo’s Moana Pinner launch two balls out Walter Victor Stadium and felt neither envy nor fear, but more a sense of appreciation. ADVERTISING HILO — Waiakea’s Skylar Thomas watched Hilo’s Moana Pinner launch two
HILO — Waiakea’s Skylar Thomas watched Hilo’s Moana Pinner launch two balls out Walter Victor Stadium and felt neither envy nor fear, but more a sense of appreciation.
In the back of Thomas’ mind, she knew the Warriors would get their pitches to hit as well.
Waiakea didn’t miss when they got them Wednesday, putting up crooked numbers in four consecutive innings and batting around twice to come back and outslug their rival 19-13 after six innings and 2 hours, 46 minutes of BIIF softball in a game that was called because of darkness.
“Coaches teach us to wait for our pitch that we know we can hit,” said Thomas, who collected a triple and a double among her three hits. “If not we have to go with it.”
“We’ve become closer, so we actually have each others’ backs mentally and physically,” Thomas said of the reigning BIIF Division I champion.
Her triple started the go-ahead four-run rally in the fifth inning, and she scored on Phoebe Furuli’s two-out double as the Warriors (2-0) withstood two home runs by Pinner.
The Vikings’ slugging first baseman bashed a grand slam in the second after hitting a two-run opposite field shot in the first, giving Hilo an 8-2 lead.
“She had beautiful hits,” Thomas said. “We were looking out for her.”
The Warriors started chipping away, though, and coach Bo Saiki didn’t learn anything about his team that he didn’t already know.
“I knew we were going to hit, it was a just a matter of if it was going to be straight at people or if it was going to fall in,” Saiki said.
Waiakea finished with 14 hits, seven for extra bases, and coaxed eight walks out of Hilo starter Zoe Cabarloc, who went the distance.
The Warriors were at their best at the plate with two outs.
Kristi Hirata delivered a two-out single during a five-run third inning, Jolene Hirata had a two-out single in the three-run fourth, pinch-hitter Shaily Moses connected for a two-out hit to drive in two in the fifth, and Taylor Nishimura finished the scoring with an RBI double with two outs to punctuate Waiakea’s five-run sixth.
“Two-out hits,” Thomas said. “That’s the favorite feeling of this game, honestly.”
Sophomore Jourdan Perreira relieved Alyssa Hara to start the third and hung tough through 3 2/3 innings, striking out four to get the win. Her best pitch came when she struck out Pinner, and freshman Jolene Hirata came on to get the final out, a rocket to right off the bat of Pinner that Brandee Chinen snatched out of the air.
Hilo collected 15 hits, but was the sloppier of the two teams, committing five errors.
“We just need to work a little more on defense,” first-year Hilo coach Kelly Galdones said. “We hit the ball, and give credit to Waiakea, because they hit the ball, too.
“The name of the game is defense and whoever makes the least amount of errors.”
For Hilo, Samantha Saltiban finished with three hits and three RBIs, Patricia Marcus had a double and two-run single and Mandi Kawaha was 3 for 4.
Chinen tripled with three RBIs, Nishimura tripled and drove in two for Waiakea, and Kristi Hirata also had three RBIs.
Waiakea 305 345 – 19 14 2
Hilo 352 12x – 13 14 5
