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Jerry Campany / jcampany@staradvertiser.com
Kaiser players watched from the dugout during Wednesday’s late-night game against Pac-Five.
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Jerry Campany / jcampany@staradvertiser.com
Pac-Five players gathered on the mound for a meeting during Wednesday’s late night game against Kaiser at Hans L’Orange Park.
Pac-Five is putting the orange in Hans L’Orange.
The Wolf Pack kept the orange numbers on the scoreboard turning at Hawaii’s historic little park, withstanding a furious Kaiser rally for an 8-7 win late Wednesday night in the first round of the Wally Yonamine Foundation State Baseball Tournament.
They needed every run, as Kaiser pulled off a miraculous comeback with five runs in the top of the seventh.
“It doesn’t matter who it is, that can happen in the state tournament,” Pac-Five coach Reyn Sugai said about the near-collapse. “It’s expected when you take your foot off the gas and give up free bases. We can come back like that, too. It can happen.”
Pac-Five struck first, thanks to a leadoff double by Alika Ahu, who scored on a double steal when Kaiser tried to get Austen Ahu at second but the catcher’s throw went into center field.
The Wolf Pack added two more in the third when they put their first four runners on base, tallying on a single by Austen Ahu and a groundout by Espn Bennett.
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Kaiser threatened in the first two innings but didn’t get on the board until the fourth, with Jackson Wood slamming a double and scoring on a swinging squeeze bunt by Tanner Kagimoto. They stranded two more when Colten Amai Nakagawa struck out Caleb Hamasaki. The Cougars left 12 runners on base.
Jaxon Bryce Cadiz added another run in the fourth by taking a pitch in the ribs with the bases loaded and Austen Ahu made it 6-1 with a hard single to right center to plate two more.
Baldwin, which will play Pac-Five in the second round at 4 p.m. on Thursday, had seen enough and headed for the exits just before Bennett singled to right field off the Cougars’ third pitcher of the inning for an 8-1 cushion heading into the fifth inning at 10:30 p.m.
Kaiser added a run in the sixth on a sacrifice fly and started the seventh with a leadoff walk — the fifth time it started an inning with a runner on base — and rallied against Pac-Five reliever Thomas Mitchell. The Cougars scored a run on Wood’s third hit of the game and tallied another on a single to center by Dru Ashimine and somehow brought the potential tying run to the plate with one out and brought out Pac-Five’s fourth pitcher.
When the dust settled, Kaiser had runners on second and third and two outs when Hayzen Inouye rolled a ground ball near first base. He was called out on a close play that had Kaiser fans howling at the injustice and kept the Cougars in front of their dugout in disbelief 15 minutes after the game ended. Fans were still seated in the bleachers at midnight, 20 minutes after the game ended.
