KEAAU – Kohala was licking its chops with its best hitter, sophomore slugger Mikayla Kekoa, at the plate with the bases loaded against Kamehameha, the perennial BIIF Division II powerhouse.
However, the Warriors followed Bill Belichick’s strategy that’s as old as a dinosaur: Don’t let the other team’s best player beat you.
On Saturday, Kamehameha thumped the Cowgirls 18-3 in a four-inning TKO game at Kamanawa softball field, mainly because Kohala had a subpar day in the three key areas: hitting, pitching, and defense.
The Cowgirls were held to two singles, allowed 17 hits (for the most part, hard-hit balls) and committed three errors, which led to seven unearned runs, including six in the first inning.
But back to the showdown of the day, which might be repeated time and again for Kohala, which has finished as the BIIF Division II runner-up the last two years.
In the second, Kamehameha junior right-hander Taylor Sullivan gave Kekoa nothing good to hit, and she had an RBI walk with the bases packed. Kekoa went 0 for 0 on the day with two walks.
The next two hitters couldn’t produce a clutch hit to put a scare into the five-time BIIF defending champs.
The inning and window of opportunity closed with the Warriors ahead 10-3. Their firepower was on full blast all game long, and they scored four runs in the third and fourth frames for the blowout.
Kohala coach Nate Kekoa, the dad of Mikayla who was an All-BIIF first baseman as a freshman last year, could only chuckle.
“They had a good strategy,” he said, grinning all along. “I would have done the same thing. It’s better to give up one run instead of four.”
In Kohala’s 13-7 season-opening win against Kealakehe, Kekoa blasted a grand slam on a 3-1 count. In an 11-8 victory over Honokaa, she drilled a two-run home run.
Basically, when she gets a good pitch to hit, Kekoa can clean house and change the complexion and outcome of a game with one swing.
The second-year Kohala coach learned a lesson against the Warriors, who didn’t really need all the extra outs and help (seven unearned runs) with three infield errors by the Cowgirls, who had a reshuffled infield.
“We graduated four seniors but the loss of catcher Kyrah Sol hurts,” Kekoa said. “She was really good behind the plate handling our pitchers. Missy Fernandez is our shortstop but played catcher. We need to move her back to shortstop and play other catchers.”
Fernandez is versatile enough to plug in at catcher. She threw out one of three stolen bases attempts. But she’s far more valuable at shortstop, where ground balls are turned into routine outs.
Besides Kekoa and Fernandez, the other returning starters are leadoff hitter Deysha Yamasaki, second baseman Jurnee Keawe, and outfielder Nicole Castillo.
The new starters are outfielders Keiko Yamura and Cheylin Imai, first baseman Symphony Kawanoa, and third baseman KaylaJay Kealoha.
Two-way talent
In three innings, Kekoa gave up 14 hits, walked one and struck out none against the Warriors, who were locked in against her, timed her pitches and looked a little too comfortable at the plate.
She also plays basketball for the Cowgirls, but her preferred sport is softball. She’s an easy candidate to forecast as a college scholarship player with her powerful bat. But Kekoa can be nails in the circle when she’s changing speeds and painting corners.
She doesn’t throw hard, at least in the range of elite prep or college pitchers, but velocity is always secondary to command or the ability to throw accurate strikes.
MLB Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux often preached his key was throwing balls that looked like strikes and strikes that looked like balls while upsetting a hitter’s timing.
Consider Kekoa’s sterling performance last year at the HHSAA Division II tournament’s first-round game against Farrington, which won 3-0, scoring three unearned runs on five Cowgirl errors.
Kekoa allowed four hits, walked none and whiffed five against the Governors, who are no ordinary Division II team. (The OIA promotes or demotes teams based on won-loss record unlike the BIIF, which relies on school enrollment size for classification.)
Farrington sits in the bustling urban Kalihi district of Honolulu and has a student enrollment of more than 2,300 while Kohala usually has under 300 students. There’s really no comparison between talent pools.
Still, Kekoa was the best freshman on the field and almost beat Farrington with the secondary part of her skill-set. As the cleanup hitter, she batted 0 for 3. Fernandez, the No. 5 hitter, went 2 for 3.
Blue Crush
Kohala coach Kekoa knows all about how Konawaena girls basketball coach Bobbie Awa built the greatest BIIF dynasty that’s still growing. (His wife’s family is related to her.)
She developed her own feeder program with the Kona Stingrays club with husband Donny Awa, worked diligently to build a culture of commitment, discipline, and team chemistry and applied an inordinate amount of patience in finding the blueprint on how to beat the state’s best.
Aunty Bobbie asked if Mikayla Kekoa wanted to play for the Stingrays, but she’s a committed Blue Crush. It’s the softball club team Nate Kekoa started five years ago in Waimea and is now based in Kapaau.
“We’re rebuilding this year, and next year we’ll be even younger,” he said. “We’re a young team. We’ve got a lot of greenhorns. It’s my second year at Kohala, and I’m using the Blue Crush as my feeder program to the high school.”
Sullivan and Kamehameha third baseman Leiloa Bustamante and catcher Kawai Kauahi-Raquel, a pair of promising freshmen, played for the Blue Crush.
That’s the way it goes sometimes — plant a seed and watch a flower blossom in another team’s garden.
But Nate Kekoa also knows this: He’s watching his standout daughter grow before his eyes and his team, too.