KAILUA-KONA – The Hilo Mustang All-Stars advanced to the state tournament with a sweep of the Kona All-Stars in a pair of one-run ball games Saturday afternoon at Old Airport Park.
KAILUA-KONA – The Hilo Mustang All-Stars advanced to the state tournament with a sweep of the Kona All-Stars in a pair of one-run ball games Saturday afternoon at Old Airport Park.
In the best-of-3 game series, Hilo took the first game 9-8 in walk-off fashion and then held off a late Kona rally in the second game for a 10-9 victory.
Next up for the Hilo squad will be the state tournament, which is scheduled to start on July 2 in Maui.
“Both teams came out and played hard,” Hilo coach Jay Hatayama said. “Kona has a good team and they battled to the very end. Both games pretty much came down to the last at-bat. It was stressful.”
The opening game was a back-and-forth battle that saw Hilo take an early 6-0 lead in the first inning. Kona jumped back with six runs in the sixth to go up 8-7. Hilo answered with a run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game.
In the bottom of the seventh, Hilo’s Keawe Kawailima pinch hit and singled to left. He stole second and then scored on a single to right by Kaikua Kokubun for the walk-off win.
“Our big boy Kaikua came through in the clutch and hopefully he will keep doing it,” Hatayama said.
In the second game, Hilo again jumped out to an early lead but Kona scored three runs in the second inning for a 4-3 advantage. Hilo answered with three runs in the third, two each in the fourth and sixth to go up 10-6.
In the bottom of the sixth, Kona’s Taven Hiraishi singled to center with one out. After the second out, Keanu Alokoa also singled to center, bringing up pinch hitter Evan Elarionoff. Elarionoff sent a Hekili Robello pitch over the right field fence for a three-run homer to make it a one-run game.
Allowing a big home run can unnerve a lot of pitchers but Robello settled down and struck the final batter.
“It’s a page out of Cal State Fullerton’s book that when bad things happen they have to flush it, let it go and focus on the next play, and that is something we focused on all through practices,” Hatayama said. “It just goes to show how much composure a 10-year old kid can have.”