HILO — Waiakea High School’s varsity baseball team defeated Konawaena High School 10-6 at home Friday evening.
Kaleb Wada got on the mound for Waiakea and struck out the leadoff — then the Wildcats came out hard, scoring four runs with two-hole Trez Uemoto hitting a first-pitch solo homer. Wada struck out the three-hole, but the next three batters all singled, and were batted in by Tobias Naihe’s double. The painful top half ended when catcher Joshua Ward passed to third-baseman Jesse Inouye to tag out Naihe attempting to steal third.
“In the top first, (Konawaena) hit the ball,” Waiakea head coach Chris Honda said. “Konawaena’s a good team, they can hit and they came out fiery. I told the guys ‘we’re gonna be in this situation many times throughout the season, and you guys showed me grit today.’ It’s a ‘never say die’ attitude, and resilience. I was proud of them.”
The Warriors fought back and took the lead with six runs in the bottom first. Garza led with a single, then stole second. Jesse Inouye grounded infield and was put out at first, but Wada followed up with a hit-by-pitch. Next, ward walked and then five-hole Clemson Julian was hit by a pitch to walk Garza across the plate. Loren Iwata then stepped into the box and hit a bases-clearing, deep-center triple. Ivor Brooks singled, sending Iwata home and stealing second as Gavin Nishida was at bat. Nishida also singled, then Toren Segovia bunted to bat Brooks in. Back at the top of the lineup, a flyout to second-baseman Tate Garana and a strikeout ended the inning.
“It shows the character of this team,” Honda said. “I was confident that we were gonna stay in the game, they’re gonna work hard, they’re not gonna give up. It could have easily gone the either way, and we never gave up and answered with a big bottom half of the inning.”
The Wildcats were unable to score in the top second. After Garana started the inning with a single, a double play from Ward to Garza to Julian put him out in between first and second, and Kolt Baptista out at first. The inning turned over when the next batter flew out to Inouye.
Waiakea got ahead by another point in the bottom of the inning when Ward hit a deep left homer with one out on the board. Julian then tripled, but was left on base after Iwata and Brooks were put out at first.
The top third saw another double-play by the Warriors. After Charlie Kuwada singled, the next batter hit a grounder to Wada, who passed to Garza to tag out Kuwada, who then passed to Julian for another put-out. Despite the two outs, Konawaena’s Jaiden Meyer and Taven Hiraishi got on base and took advantage of errors to score runs and get the Wildcats within striking distance — trailing 7-6. Wada notched another strikeout to turn the inning over.
Konawaena stayed within reach by shutting Waiakea out in the bottom third. A strikeout by Kuwada on the mound and two flyouts to Hiraishi in the center outfield ended the Warriors turn at bat in just three batters.
Waiakea made sure that the Wildcats suffered a top fourth just as short, putting out one batter at first and the other two via flyouts to Garza and Iwata.
In the bottom fourth, the Warriors cemented their lead with three more runs. Inouye led with a single, followed by a double by Wada and another single by Ward. Inouye and Wada were reached home on a single by Julian. Iwata and Brooks each singled, but Ward and Julian were each tossed out while making their way around the diamond. A single by Nishida batted in Iwata for the contest’s final run, before a flyout ended the inning.
Konawaena suffered another three-batter shutout in the top fifth — with a flyout to Segovia, a strikeout by Wada and a putout at first assisted by Inouye.
Waiakea was also shut out in the bottom fifth, with two putouts at first and a strikeout by relief pitcher Trez Uemoto.
The Wildcats loaded the bases in the top sixth, but all three were left on base when two batters flew out and Wada struck out the next.
The Warriors got on base on in the bottom sixth with a single by Julian, but all other three batters went out. One flew out to Hiriashi, one was put out at first and the other was struck out by Uemoto.
Waiakea ended the game with flyouts to Iwata and Segovia and a putout at first assisted by Garza.
Julian went three-for-three with a hit-by-pitch to lead WHS at the plate.
Wada earned the win — notching five strikeouts with two walks and a hit-by-pitch.
Honda said that future success will depend on fine-tuning the little things.
“We’re working on catching, hitting the ball,” he said, “putting down errors, executing some of the small ball. It’s the timely hitting, staying out of the air, hard line drives and ground balls. I was happy because we’ve been really working on that and seeing it get better every week.”
Now 2-1, the Warriors will travel to Keaau High School at 3 p.m. Wednesday and will host Pahoa High School at 1 p.m. Saturday.