It took a couple of days, but West Side finally unleashed the “Beast.”
And, man, was Zes Tolentino scary.
With a powerful left arm, four pitches to play with and only 46 feet between him and the plate, Tolentino dominated Sunday with 12 strikeouts and also ripped a three-run triple with a double. All of that left West Side staring at a tie game until it scored a run with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, advancing to Little League District 4 Majors championship game with a 6-5 victory against North Hawaii at Walter Victor complex.
“I wasn’t trying to strike everybody out, just throwing pitches,” Tolentino said during an interview as a fan shouted, “Let’s go, ‘Beast.’”
West Side (2-1) faces the tough prospect of having to beat defending state champion Hilo (2-0) twice on Monday (first pitch is 1 p.m.) without the mound services of Tolentino, who reached the limit with 88 pitches and allowed three hits in 4 2/3 innings in his pitching first appearance of the tournament.
“He’s been my ace all year, he’s been my go-to guy all-year and he throw’s hard for this distance,” said coach Robert Nakagawa, who elected not to pitch Tolentino in the tourney opener, which Hilo won 11-0.
“We had game plan for Hilo, but we didn’t take care of it defensively the way we needed to,” Nakagawa said. “Zes has been my horse for the past three years, so I rode him (today) and hoped he could get the job done.”
The seventh-grader at Kealakehe Intermediate delivered, but he wasn’t the only reason the Zes Tolentino Show was a classic.
Also in beast mode was North Hawaii’s Kinohi Lindsey, who fueled a three-run rally to tie it in the top of the sixth with his third home run of the tournament. Heolu Bertelmann followed with single, Easton Hoshida walked and one out later Gabriel Key made it a one-run game with a hit, then a wild pitch tied the game.
“I reminded them this is why you play baseball,” Nakagawa said. “You play baseball to have these situations, to be the walk-off guy.”
That guy turned out to be Kolten Baptista. Tate Garana and Kainalu Pabre each singled, and with runners on first and second and two outs, North Hawaii elected to walk Tolentino, loading the bases for Baptista.
“He knew what to do,” Tolentino said.
Baptista hit a sharp grounder up the middle that was gloved by the second baseman, but Tolentino was called safe in a close play at second as the winning run scored.
Trez Uemoto, who struck out the side in the sixth after coming on as West Side’s third pitcher, got the win.
Tolentino allowed the first two batters of the game to reach – Aiden Joaquin singled and Hezekiah Wilson walked – and both scored on wild pitches before he turned beastly, striking out 12 of the next 16 batters.
“Defensively, we have to do a whole better lot catching and throwing the ball,” said Nakagawa, looking ahead to Monday. “And we have to hit.”
Softball
One day after a series of miscues led to a 16-6 loss to Gold Coast in the district opener, Hilo cleaned up its act with a 7-3 win to tie the series. The winner-take-all is at 10 a.m. Monday.
Emily Hora pitched a complete game and walked only one batter with three strikeouts.
“I guess it was just first-game jitters,” coach Kelly Galdones said, referring to the opener. “The key was that Emily threw strikes. I told the team we can’t play defense against walks.”
Kaylee Aiona hit two doubles, and Brianne Felipe also finished with two hits, including a double that helped Hilo add two insurance runs in the top of the sixth. Jaime Santos had a triple.
“We have nothing to lose, so I told the girls to go out their and have fun,” Galdones.