By BILL O’REAR By BILL O’REAR ADVERTISING Tribune-Herald sports editor Skyler Agrigado and Kawehi Granito-Wallace cracked three-run homers and Chelsea Camello tossed a four-hitter to lead Waiakea to a 12-1 five-inning TKO win over Hilo on Saturday afternoon. The impressive
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
Skyler Agrigado and Kawehi Granito-Wallace cracked three-run homers and Chelsea Camello tossed a four-hitter to lead Waiakea to a 12-1 five-inning TKO win over Hilo on Saturday afternoon.
The impressive softball victory on the Warriors field clinched the Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division I East top seed for Waiakea (13-2) in this week’s four-team playoffs. In the D-I semifinals at 3 p.m. Tuesday, the Warriors host East No. 3 Hilo (11-4) while East No. 2 Keaau (11-4) travels to play West No. 1 Kealakehe (8-4). Keaau, which beat Pahoa 10-2 on Saturday, claimed the No. 2 seed over the Vikings in a head-to-head tiebreaker, winning two of their three games.
The D-I championship game will be played at 3 p.m. Thursday at the highest remaining seed’s field. If Waiakea and Kealakehe prevail Tuesday, the teams would play at Waiakea since the Warriors have already won a coin flip to decide the host site. The BIIF champion earns an automatic berth in the state D-I tournament, scheduled May 9-12 on Oahu. The BIIF runner-up will host the Oahu Interscholastic Association’s sixth-place finisher April 28 in a play-in game to determine the final berth in the state tournament.
On Saturday, the talented Warriors celebrated Senior Day and looked like the team to beat in the upcoming playoffs — showcasing a potent offense and steady defense with the gritty Camello on the mound.
Agrigado, a senior slugger, ripped her three-run homer in the bottom of the rain-filled first inning to give Waiakea the early lead. Then after the young Vikings plated a run in the top of the second, the Warriors added a run in the bottom of the frame, and exploded for seven runs in the third inning, highlighted by Granito-Wallace’s three-run homer to left field to make it 11-1.
The first-inning shot to right field off Hilo senior pitcher Ashlyn Kaneshiro was Agrigado’s seventh home run of the season and again underlined the fact that the hard-hitting Warrior third baseman has been the BIIF’s most feared slugger all season.
Agrigado said she knew Saturday’s game against rival Hilo was critical and the Warriors didn’t want to leave anything to chance.
“We wanted to leave it all on the field and play with heart today,” said a smiling Agrigado, still muddy from sliding home on her three-run homer in the first inning and wearing parts of cupcake icing on her cheeks and forehead from the postgame senior celebration with her teammates.
“Our main goal this season was to win the BIIF and go to the states,” she said. “I’m proud of my teammates on how they played today. Everybody stuck together and it was a nice way to celebrate Senior Day.”
Camello, a senior right-hander with a panda bear grin and pitbull approach on the mound, agreed with Agrigado, calling the win over the Vikings “a team effort.” But she knew from her first pitch in a steady rain that she’d have to contain dangerous Hilo, which stunned the Warriors 10-0 in a TKO contest earlier this year.
“I knew I had to adjust,” said Camello, who will play softball at Chaminade University next year. “I wasn’t thinking about hitting spots, I was just trying to throw strikes.”
Waiakea coach Bo Saiki told the confident Camello before the game to relax, toss strikes and let her defense do their job.
“Chelsea occasionally gets too fired-up for the game and she overthrows,” he said. “When that happens, she has a harder time finding the target. But (catcher) Ariana (Mareko) and Chelsea work well together and settle each other down. They’re a good combination.”
Camello added: “I’m very confident with Ariana behind the plate. We talk to each other and communicate with strikes. Today, I didn’t think about losing or any pressure, I just wanted to pitch my game.”
And Camello did just that — making the necessary adjustments in the rainy opening frame and throwing strikes the rest of the way as the sun came out. She earned the win, striking out two and walking two — then joined the three other Waiakea seniors, Agrigado, Anela Granito-Wallace and Ishael Shaw-DeMello, in a final run-around-the-bases jaunt.
Like Agrigado, Camello said she was happy the Warrior seniors finished the regular season with a win.
“It was a good job by the seniors,” said Camello, wearing lei, cupcake icing and a wet uniform from the run around the bases when her teammates squirted her with water bottles as she slid into home plate.
“We’ve got two more to go,” Saiki said, pointing to this week’s playoffs to clinch a state tournament berth. “But we know it’s one and done. If we don’t win the two, we may have to stay home. We’ll give it our best shot.
“Right now, I feel the offense is starting to gel, the defense is solid and Chelsea is getting the job done on the mound,” the Waiakea coach said. “We’ve just got to keep it going this week and see what happens. But I’m confident in the girls and if we play like we’ve been doing, we should be OK.”
The Warriors outhit Hilo 9-4 on Saturday. Agrigado, Kawehi Granito-Wallace and Alexis Anzai each went 2 for 3 to lead the Waiakea attack, with both Agrigado and Granito-Wallace driving in three runs. Raven Hall was the only Viking to pair hits off Camello, going 2 for 3.
Kaneshiro took the loss, allowing three walks, and she didn’t strike out a batter. But the senior threw strikes and Waiakea earned most of its hits. Two errors also didn’t help Hilo in the lopsided loss.
“What happened to Hilo today was the same thing that happened to us when they TKO-ed us,” Saiki said. “Today, Hilo got down and fell apart on defense. They made some key errors at critical times. We had some errors today, but we were able to minimize them and they didn’t cost us.”
Waiakea had three errors.
Saiki expects a tough game on Tuesday, the fourth meeting this season against coach Leo Sing Chow’s Vikings. Waiakea has won two of the three, but in a one-game, winner-take-all situation, anything can happen.
Hilo 010 00 — 1 4 2
Waiakea 317 1x — 12 9 3
Kealakehe 15, Honokaa 2: Senior pitcher Summer McEntee pitched a six-hitter at Honokaa for the Division I Waveriders (8-4).
McEntee struck out six and walked two in a game that ended after five innings because of the league’s mercy rule.
Kealakehe piled up five of its eight hits in a nine-run second inning junior Monica Sprangler highlighted with a two-run triple. Brooke Rivera, Nicole Rivera and Joyann Nena each had two hits and two runs scored.
Honokaa sophomore Kayla Kalauli, who pitched four innings, suffered the loss. She yielded 13 runs on seven hits, striking out one batter, walking four and hitting two.
At the plate, freshman Kayla Requelman went 2-for-3 with a triple, an RBI and a run scored for West Hawaii No. 2 seed Honokaa.
The Dragons (6-6) will host East No. 3 seed Ka‘u (1-14) at 3 p.m. Wednesday in a first-round Division II tournament game. The winner will play at 3 p.m. Friday at East top seed Kamehameha-(6-9).
Kealakehe 391 0 2 — 15 8 3
Honokaa 002 00 — 2 6 7
Kohala 9, Konawaena 6: Senior pitcher Chyler Imai pitched a complete game for the Cowgirls in Kealakekua as Kohala ended its regular season 9-3.
Imai gave up six hits, striking out eight and walking three. She also had an RBI single in Kohala’s three-run first inning.
Junior Tiani Luga ripped an RBI double in the first, while freshman Ashlyn Van Zandt was 2-for-4.
Konawaena freshman Bethany Batangan, who also went the distance, suffered the loss. She allowed six hits, striking out two batters and walking eight.
Syleesia Jose was 2 for-4 with a double, a triple and two RBIs, while Saxon Nagata went 3 for 3 with a double and an RBI for the Wildcats (4-8).
West No. 3 seed Konawaena will play at East No. 2 seed Pahoa (3-12) on in a 3 p.m. first-round game Wednesday. The winner will face West No. 1 seed Kohala at 3 p.m. Friday in the BIIF semifinals.
Kohala 323 010 0 — 9 6 2
Konawaena 202 11 0 0 — 6 6 4
Final regular-season standings
East Division
Division I
W-L
Waiakea 13-2
Hilo 11-4
Keaau 11-4
Division II
Kamehameha 6-9
Pahoa 3-12
Ka’u 1-14
West Division
Division I
Kealakehe 8-4
Division II
Kohala 9-3
Honokaa 6-6
Konawaena 4-8
Hawaii Prep 3-9
End of regular season
Playoffs
Tuesday
Division I
Semifinals
Hilo at Waiakea, 3 p.m.
Keaau at Kealakehe, 3 p.m.
Wednesday
Division II
First round
Konawaena at Pahoa, 3 p.m.
Ka‘u at Honokaa, 3 p.m.
Thursday
Division I Championship game
Hilo-Waiakea winner vs. Keaau-Kealakehe winner, 3 p.m., site TBA
Friday
Division II semifinals
Kona-Pahoa winner at Kohala, 3 p.m.
Ka‘u-Honokaa winner at Kamehameha, 3 p.m.
Saturday
Division II
Championship game
Semifinal winners, 1 p.m., site TBA
Third-place game
Semifinal losers, 1 p.m., site TBA
Division I
OIA No. 6 vs. BIIF runner-up, 1 p.m.
