North Hawaii’s assault on the baseball went clockwise.
Elijah Scadina sent a no-doubter over the fence in left, Braeden Samura lined a blast to center and Micah Reyes sliced a home run to right – and that was just the first inning.
They might need to find a bigger field at the Little League District 4 Majors tournament. Walter Victor Stadium couldn’t come close to containing the ages 11-12 team from Waimea and Kohala.
Samura led the power display Saturday with two home runs, including a grand slam, and North Hawaii overwhelmed West Side 22-3 to set up a winner’s bracket game against Hilo.
“When one person gets a hit, it just sparks a fire in everybody,” Samura said. “It amps them up and it sparks a whole hitting change.”
Four weekends ago in a PONY League series in Waimea, North Hawaii made a similar opening statement with its bats, battering Hilo. However, Hilo won the final two games to advance to states, which it won.
“It was motivating,” Samura said. “I want to try and get back to win this series and go to states.”
Coach Andrew Akau brought the same team to East Hawaii for Little League, though Sunday it’ll be facing an entirely different Hilo squad since Hilo PONY rules don’t allow players to be a part of two different All-Star teams.
“We’re taking the same approach,” Akau said. “Just trying to battle every pitch and be in every play.”
That mindset was apparent in the opening inning as North Hawaii connected for five extra-base hits and nine in all. It finished with 18 hits and batted around in all three of its at-bats, sandwiching a five-run second inning in between a seven-run first and a 10-run third.
North Hawaii hit four home runs at the middle field at Walter Victor – the dimensions are listed at 200 feet in left, center and right – but its most impressive drive might have been a deep fly that landed just foul off the bat of Tookie Hook.
No. 8 hitter Kama Muruki collected three hits with two RBIs, Ioane Kaaekuahiwi ripped a two-run double and was 2 for 3 and Logan Neves, Jake Bannister and Reyes also finished with two hits apiece. Samura drove in five with three hits, walloping two high fastballs over the fence, one with the bases loaded in the third.
“It doesn’t really matter what (dimensions) we’re hitting against,” he said. “I think today we were on our game and we came ready and prepared.”
Where does North Hawaii get all of these potent bats?
“It’s the pedigree,” Andrew Akau said. “I’m lucky the parents are all athletes and their kids are the same age as my son.”
Lopaka Akau pitched in relief as North Hawaii used five pitchers to limit West Side to three hits. Scadina and Samura each worked a scoreless inning.
Ethan Yamaguchi and Lae’ula Starkey hit run-scoring singles for West Side, which will try to stay in contention at the double-elimination tournament Sunday against Ka’u.
Minors
Shiloh Santos earned the win as Hilo Blue beat West Side 5-0 in the ages 9-10 tournament, setting up a game Sunday against Hilo Red, which is also 1-0.
Ili Kamaka and Kade Guillermo had multiple hits.
North Hawaii will try to remain in contention Sunday against North Hawaii, which eliminated Hamakua with a 14-10 victory.