KEAAU – Another head’s up play by Konawaena was enough to give Keaau baseball coach Herb Yasuhara a headache.
As a Wildcats base runner veered off second base Thursday, the Cougars threw behind him and watched him easily swipe third.
“That’s what I would have done,” Yasuhara bellowed from the dugout.
It’s the kind of play the veteran coach has harped on before, but it was that kind of afternoon for Keaau, which lost 10-0 in a five-inning TKO.
“Like I told them, I wish we could play the game for you guys,” Yasuhara said.
Boaz Ayers pitched four shutout innings and Jake Basque batted 3 for 3 with three RBIs, including a two-run double, for the Wildcats (5-2, BIIF Division II), who scored in every inning but the third en route to making it a quick afternoon.
It’d be easy to blame the Cougars’ 1-5 record on a relative lack of experience – that’s a perpetual problem for the Division I program – but a) Yasuhara doesn’t want to do that; and b) he doesn’t think that “excuse” is as applicable as other seasons.
Frankly, he said, “We have to man up.”
Keaau’s most recent success came in 2015, when it reached the BIIF championships series but was swept by Hilo, missing out on what would have been its first state tournament.
“I don’t know, these guys are a lot more talented than we’ve had in a while,” Yasuhara said. “We have talented guys, but they’re still learning the game and playing all different positions.
“It’s just matter of getting our guys to play up to their capability.”
Junior Bryant Respicio-Mercado mustered two of Keaau’s four hits.
Yasuhara likes the way freshman left-hander Jayten Kamakea throws strikes, but he was hurt by five walks in his start Thursday. In 3 1/3 innings, Kamakea yielded six hits and nine runs, five earned, with a strikeout.
Along with going 2 for 3 at the plate with three runs scored, Ayers worked around three hits and four walks, stranding six runners without the benefit of a strikeout. Bronson Riviera allowed a hit to Edward Oguma in the fifth but struck out a batter in his inning of work.
“We’ve just got to concentrate,” Yasuhara said. “Batting practice is fine, but come game times, so many popups.”
Konawaena would score all the runs it would need in the first with a three-run rally that was sparked by a Ayers’ hit, an error, two walks and Basque’s RBIs single to left.
Kanai Rivera hit a two-run double in the second and an RBI single in the fourth as Konawaena tacked on four runs.
The regular-season goal for the Wildcats is clear: finish with the second or third seed in D-II and avoid unbeaten Kamehameha in the semifinals. Konawaena stands a game ahead of Hawaii Prep and Honokaa, who are tied for fourth at 4-3.
As usual, Keaau and Kealakehe are battling it out for third and fourth in D-I. One will get Hilo in the semifinals, the other Waiakea.
With only four seniors and players spread mostly evenly among grades 9-12 on the roster, Yasuahra thinks he can return a squad next year with better seasoning.
Keaau’s short-term goal: better energy, Yasuhara said.
“I give them credit, they are trying their best, but Konawaena outhustled us,” Yasuhara said. “They had a better attitude about the game.”
