By MATT GERHART
Hawaii Tribune-Herald
When it’s not your day, it’s not your day.
Hilo’s group of 13-year-olds might have sensed as much Saturday when Moku Kokubun’s laser up the middle, his team’s hardest hit ball of the game, ricocheted off Maui pitcher Derin Lewis’ foot and bounced directly to his first baseman.
An assist for Lewis on an easy, albeit loud, out.
“Just one of those things,” Hilo coach Koa Marzo said.
Beyond his unintended fancy footwork, Lewis was even better with his arm and bat, delivering five shutout innings along with a double and a triple with two runs scored as Maui grabbed control of the state Little League Intermediate (ages 11-13) division baseball tournament with a 3-0 victory in a crisply played contest at Walter Victor complex.
Piikoa Kamoku wiggled out of a bases-loaded jam in the sixth in pitching the final two innings to secure Maui’s second win in as many days. The youngsters from the Valley Isle, who thumped Pearl City, Oahu, 21-7 on Friday, earned a day off and will have two chances to win the championship Monday.
Hilo returns to Walter Victor at 11 a.m. Sunday to face Pearl City, with the winner earning a rematch with Maui.
“We were a little nervous,” Marzo said. “Coming in (Sunday), we should get back to how we play our game normally.
“I think today was a good day to get out jitters out, but we had to take a loss to do it.”
Hilo had its chances.
It loaded the bases with one out in the top of the first on a walk and singles by Koa Marzo Jr and Kokubun, but Lewis squashed the threat with two strikeouts. Lewis led off the bottom half of the inning with a triple to right field off Zian Wery, scoring when Kaden Anderson, the next batter, singled. Anderson came around to score on Kamahao Akima’s sacrifice fly.
Wery hung tough through four innings, striking out three. In the second, he allowed two hits, but he erased one by starting a 1-2-3 double play, and Wery picked off the other. In the third, Lewis’ double and Anderson’s single made it 3-0.
Hilo never could come with a key hit, stranding nine runners on base. With two on and two out in the fifth, Maui third baseman Kaikanoa Ka’ahanui charged a slow roller and made a nice play to deny Marzo Jr. of his third hit. A walk and hits by MJ Ellazar and Hunter Yamamoto didn’t pay dividends in the sixth after Kamoku struck two batters out.
“They did a good job keeping our batters off-balance,” Coach Marzo said. “We kept on preaching to the kids to make an adjustment to their approach at the bat, and we couldn’t make the approach fast enough.”
Utilizing a firm fastball and an effective curveball, Lewis struck out seven.
Of his 13 players, Maui coach Marshall Mindoro said he has at least eight dependable pitchers. His team was not charged with an error.
“We have good depth, and they are all starters,” said Mindoro, who used coach at Maui High. “I’m trying to get them ready for college series. In a three-game series, you need about nine pitchers.”
Hilo pitcher Jerrell Alston was impressive in his own right, recording all five of his outs via the strikeout before being pulled so he’d be be available Sunday. Coach Marzo said he was likely to start on the mound against Pearl City.
“That wasn’t a game to hang your head about,” Marzo said. “That was a good game that we played.”