By MATT GERHART
By MATT GERHART
Tribune-Herald sports writer
More than a few observers at Wong Stadium on Wednesday probably figured Koa Matson’s double in the bottom of the seventh inning was simply a harmless parting gift for a departing Hilo High senior.
Matson, who wasn’t quite ready for his high school career to end, had other ideas. So did Elijah Cruz and Tyler Higa-Gonsalves. The juniors weren’t quite ready for their seasons to end yet either. Because of their heroics, the final chapter of the Vikings’ season will be written at the Hawaii High School Athletic Association tournament.
Down to their final out, Higa-Gonsalves drove in the tying run with a double and Cruz followed with a run-scoring single as the Vikings rallied to score four runs in the seventh to stun Campbell 6-5 in a Division I state baseball play-in game.
“That’s the craziest two-out rally I’ve ever … Oh my God,” said Matson, who was the first of five consecutive batters to reach after reliever Donato Gallano retired the first two batters in the seventh. “This just makes us all believe that anything is possible. Makes us even more hungry to keep winning and keep the season going.”
The Vikings (13-5), who appeared to have had their hearts ripped out when Campbell rallied for four runs with two outs in the top of the seventh to take a 5-2 lead, will join Big Island Interscholastic Federation champion Waiakea (17-0) at states, which start Tuesday in Honolulu.
“To to see the boys dig down into themselves, that was a coach’s dream,” Hilo’s Tony DeSa said.
Higa-Gonsalves made it 5-5, turning on a 3-1 fastball and belting a two-run double to left-center to score Jodd Carter and Micah Kaaukai. The Sabers had a chance to cut down Kaaukai, who was on first after being hit, but the relay throw to the plate was off course.
“I knew we would come back and wouldn’t give up,” said Higa-Gonsalves, who was 2 for 4. “I was thinking of putting the ball in play to score the runs and was hoping for the best.”
That set the stage for Cruz, who sent a fastball to the opposite field that dropped in front of right fielder Cody Silver, scoring Higa-Gonsalves from third and sending his teammates storming out of their dugout.
“I always have confidence in my team,” Cruz said. “He was throwing a lot of fastballs, so I was looking fastball and I just took my time looking at the pitch and went with it on the outside.”
The play was similar to the flare the Sabers of the Oahu Interscholastic Association used to storm back in their half of the seventh.
“Almost the same hit,” DeSa said. “Payback, I guess.”
Trailing 2-1 and down to their last strike, Silver’s hit off Carter dropped in front of a diving Randall Iha in right field for a two-run double. Waylen Lindsey followed with a two-run single to seemingly spoil a stellar outing from Hilo starter Kian Kurokawa.
Campbell outslugged Hilo 18-15 en route to winning the Costales preseason tournament at Wong in March, but Kurokawa, a junior, tamed the Sabers’ bats in the play-in game, limiting them to two hits until he tired in the seventh.
In six 1/3 innings, he allowed three runs on three hits and walk with two strikeouts.
Carter got two outs to pick up the win. At the plate he was 2 for 3 with two RBIs, including a bases-loaded walk that gave Hilo a 2-1 lead in the fifth and a single in the seventh that extended Hilo’s season and scored Matson to cut the deficit to 5-3.
Gallano manufactured a run in the top of the first, reaching on a single, then stealing second and scoring on two groundouts. Behind starter Jasten Smeigh, that lead held until Hilo’s Chayce Kaaua’s two-out double in the fifth tied the score 1-1.
Smeigh, a junior, was only scratched for two unearned over six innings — allowing six hits, two walks with two strikeouts and hitting a batter— and was one out from a win when Gallano set down Kaaua and Keenan Nishioka to open the seventh.
Then Matson innocently strode the the plate. In the first, he killed a rally when he grounded into a double play with the bases loaded. In the seventh, he ignited one with a liner to left-center, ensuring that the next pitch he sees will be at states — as opposed to having to wait until next season when he’ll attend Lon Morris junior college in Jacksonville, Texas.
“The thought that this was my final high school at-bat didn’t even cross my mind,” he said. “I just wanted to hit something hard.
“All I thought about this season is that I’ve gotten so close to my team since we strated practicing and our whole thing this year was to make good chemistry. All these guys are like my brothers. I didn’t want it to end yet.”
Campbell 100 000 4 — 5 5 2
Hilo 000 020 4 — 6 10 2