The scouting report on Pearl City’s Carson Okada was spot on.
Okada delivered the Chargers’ second masterful pitching performance in as many days at the HHSAA Division I baseball tournament, pitching a complete game Thursday as Pearl City beat Waiakea 4-2 in the quarterfinals in Wailuku, Maui.
“He mixed his speeds very, very well,” Waiakea coach Rory Inouye said.
Okada, a junior right-hander, needed just one strikeout to slow the BIIF champion Warriors (15-4), who amassed just six singles and drew a walk.
“Everybody I talked to on Oahu said (Okada) was a smart pitcher,” Inouye said, “and that is what he showed.”
On Wednesday, the Chargers (15-1) of the OIA got eight shutout innings from ace Trenton Darley and eked out a 1-0, 10-inning victory against Maui, and Pearl City hasn’t made an error in two games.
The Chargers were aided by errors in the second and third innings to scratch across runs against Waiakea’s David Nakamura, and a hit batter by Makoa Andres and a catcher’s interference led to another run in the fifth.
“Pearl City is just a very fundamentally sound team.” Inouye said.
Waiakea couldn’t always say the same. The Warriors finished with four errors, leading to three unearned runs, and Nakamura (four innings, four walks, one strikeouts) and Andres (three innings, four hits, one strikeout) combined to hit three batters.
Inouye chalked some of the miscues up to the fact that Waiakea was still getting used to play to the “wind tunnel” at Iron Maehara Stadium.
“No excuses,” he said.
Andres hit a sacrifice fly in the fifth, scoring Anthony Benevides, who pitch ran after Mackanzy Maesaka drew a walk. In the sixth, Trayden Tamiya and Shaun Kurosawa singled ahead of Gehrig Octavio’s RBI groundout.
Darley provided an insurance run in the seventh with a single to score Christian Onomura (2 for 3), who had doubled.
Andres and Jacob Igawa each singled in the seventh for Waiakea, but Okada ended the game by picking off as runner.
Waiakea will try to avoid an 0-2 trip to states but it will have to do it against top-seeded Mid-Pacific, which was shutout 4-0 by Mililani, giving the OIA at least three teams in the semifinals.
“We battled until the end,” Inouye said. “I told the team not to let one game define your season.”
Pearl City 011 010 1 – 4 6 0
Waiakea 000 011 0 – 2 6 4
Punahou 6, Hilo 2: Three Buffanblu pitchers held the Vikings to three hits in a consolation game as the BIIF runner-up finished its season 13-7.
Donald Saltiban took the loss, allowing four hits, three runs with a walk in two innings.
Hilo 020 000 0 – 2 3 2
Punahou 120 003 x – 6 8 0
