By BILL O’REAR
By BILL O’REAR
Tribune-Herald sports editor
KEAAU — In a game with championship implications, senior Kiani Wong dug deep and led Kamehameha to a hard-fought 7-1 semifinal win over Honokaa on Friday afternoon.
In the other Big Island Interscholastic Federation Division II softball semifinal, Kohala edged visting Konawaena 5-2.
The East Division’s top seeded Warriors (7-9) will host the West Division’s top seeded Cowgirls (10-3) at 1 p.m. today in the league’s D-II title game at the private school’s scenic campus in Keaau.
By winning Friday, both Kamehameha and Kohala clinched state tournament berths. At 1 p.m. today, Honokaa (7-7) will battle Konawaena (5-9) for the league’s final state berth on the Dragons’ field.
Wong, a crafty 5-foot-4 right-hander with a UFC fighter’s competitive zeal, fired a four-hitter and worked her way out of a couple of tight jams to eliminate the gutsy Dragons from championship consideration. But it wasn’t an easy contest to pitch in — one with a frustrating drizzle through two long innings as well as one filled with a combined 14 strikeouts, 13 walks, eight wild pitches, two passed balls and two beaned batters.
Still, when the game was on the line, it was the versatile Wong that seemed to settle down her teammates and come through with the key pitches to handcuff the dangerous Dragons.
“I was concerned coming into today,” said Wong, who’ll attend the University of Hawaii next year. “Honokaa is a good team, they have some good hitters. I knew I was going to have to pitch well for us to have a chance at winning. I tried to keep the ball low and keep them off-balance.”
The Warriors struck first, scoring two runs off Honokaa starter Hailey Paglinawan in the bottom of the first inning. The hosts used a beaned batter, two walks, two steals and a catcher’s interference call to plate their initial run. Then Wong, who had walked earlier, sprinted home on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
The light rain started to dampen the field and softball in the third inning, and that led to more difficulty throwing the ball for both Paglinawan and Wong as well as their defenses handling groundballs. The drizzle continued into the top of the fourth when Honokaa used a walk to Kealani Loo, a Warrior error and a wild pitch to plate their run and close to 2-1.
But Kamehameha scored two more runs in the bottom of the fourth without a hit, taking advantage of two Honokaa errors, a walk, a beaned batter and a wild pitch.
In the fifth inning, the Warriors added three more runs — a two-hit rally sparked by Wong’s long triple to right field and an infield single by determined senior Shaylyn Kahawai. The big Kamehameha inning was fueled by the two hits, four walks and three wild pitches.
Wong admitted the wet fourth and fifth innings weren’t easy.
“I kind of lost focus in those innings,” she said. “But after that, I tried to finish strong. I just tried to be consistent and let my defense do their job.”
In the sixth, she hit the first batter, then retired the next three Dragons. Then in the seventh after Wong struck out the leadoff hitter, Allie Shiraki, and Kayla Kalauli ripped back-to-back singles to ignite a short-lived Honokaa rally. But Wong got the next two Dragon batters to ground out and seal the semifinal victory.
“It’s really good to get the win,” Wong said. “As seniors, one of our goals is to win the BIIF. Then we’d like to go to the state tournament and give it our best.”
Wong earned the tough victory. She struck out eight, walked three and had two wild pitches. Paglinawan took the loss, also allowing just four hits. She struck out six, walked 10, and had six wild pitches and two passed balls.
Kalauli was the only batter to pair hits, with a single and a double. Teammates Shiraki and Kayla Requelman each added singles.
Four Warriors had hits off the hard-throwing Paglinawan — Wong (triple), Kahawai (single), Jaylen Shiroma (single) and Gayla Ha-Cabebe (single).
Kamehameha coach Gary Ahu has only three seniors on this year’s roster (Wong, Kahawai and Kalyn Kanaeholo), so Friday’s tournament win over the Dragons should help the returning underclassmen.
“We played solid today, and Kiani did a good job pitching,” said Ahu, who’ll need another rock-solid effort today against Kohala in the BIIF title game.”Against Kohala, we’ll need to get good pitching, play good defense and get some hits at the right time.”
Honokaa, under coach Wesley Fujimoto, will need a similar scenario to challenge Konawaena for the final state D-II tournament berth. If the Dragons can tighten up on their pitching and defense plus regain their hitting eye, they could give the Wildcats a tough battle in their third-place game today at Honokaa.
At Kamehameha
Honokaa 001 000 0 — 1 4 2
Kamehameha 200230 x — 7 4 1
Kohala 5, Konawaena 2: Senior Sheana Cazimero’s two-run homer down the left-field line in the third inning erased a 2-1 deficit and gave Kohala the lead for good at Kamehameha Park as the Cowgirls earned a spot in today’s BIIF Division II championship game and a trip to the Hawaii High School Athletic Association state tournament.
The Cowgirls (10-3) will travel to face Kamehameha (7-9) at 1 p.m. The Wildcats (5-9) will play at Honokaa (7-7) in a third-place game that will determine the league’s final state tournament participant.
Cazimero’s homer drove in junior Tiani Luga, who had singled to start the inning. Cazimero went 2-for-3, and Luga (1-for-2) had the Cowgirls’ only other RBI.
But that was all the run support pitcher Chyler Imai needed as she picked up the win. Imai, a senior, recovered from a shaky first inning, giving up two runs to settle down and throw a complete game two-hitter. She struck out three and walked one.
Junior Saxon Nagata drove in Konawaena’s two runs with a single.
Freshman Bethany Batangan took the loss for the Wildcats, giving up five hits and walking two over six innings.
Konawaena 200 000 0 — 2 2 3
Kohala 012 020 X — 5 5 2
D-I play-in
BIIF runnner-up Keaau (12-5) will host Oahu Interscholastic Association sixth-place finisher Moanalua at 10 a.m. today on the Cougars field in a play-in game for the final berth in the state D-I tournament.
The 12-team event will be played Wednesday through Saturday on Oahu.
BIIF champion Hilo (13-4) captured the league’s automatic state berth by beating Keaau 10-4 on Thursday in the title game.
Glance
Friday
Division II semifinals
Kamehameha 7, Honokaa 1
Kohala 5, Kona 2
Today
Division II
Final: Kohala at Kamehameha, 1 p.m.
Third: Kona at Honokaa, 1 p.m.
Division I
State play-in game
Moanalua at Keaau, 10 a.m.