Mia Joaquin and Kealakehe’s unbeaten BIIF Division I softball team come with their own warning label.
The Waveriders chanted “back it up” Saturday whenever Joaquin came to the plate against Hilo. True to form, in her second at-bat she laced a double over the left fielder’s head.
The Vikings moved back a few steps for Joaquin’s next plate appearance, but it didn’t matter. The senior rocketed a ball over the left-field fence at UH-Hilo softball field, driving in five runs with four extra-base hits while pitching a complete game with 10 strikeouts in a 12-2 six-inning TKO victory against the Vikings.
“My home run, I knew it was over,” said Joaquin. “I can feel when it’s going over.
“It’s just a rush jogging around the bases and everybody cheering. It’s a thrill.”
The program’s biggest one to date came in 2019 when Kealakehe won its first BIIF title, and three years later the pandemic has done little to stunt its momentum. The Waveriders (5-0) finished off a season sweep of Hilo (3-2) after previously doing the same to Waiakea (2-3). Kealakehe has a game remaining against Keaau (0-5), and the teams will face off again in the BIIF semifinals.
“We’re all starting on a clean slate, we don’t know what to expect,” coach Loni Mercado said. “We don’t even know what to expect from our team.”
She has, however, come to rely on Joaquin, who’s added pitching to her repertoire after contributing to the title-winning team as a freshman as an infielder. Joaquin spotted Hilo a 2-0 lead, but she pitched out of trouble when she needed to in fashioning a three-hitter, especially against the Vikings’ most dangerous hitter, Quinn Waiki.
Twice in the middle innings with runners aboard, Joaquin induced Waiki to sky balls to right field for fly outs.
“That’s Mia keeping it nice and low in the zone,” Mercado said. “Low in the zone is either going to give us a ground ball or an ugly pop fly.”
The Waveriders, meanwhile, got runners on, got them over and got them home
Chesney Palos walked with one out in the third, Rhianna Joaquin singled and Kealakehe tied the game on Caitlyn Nakamura’s sacrifice fly and Mia Joaquin’s deep double. Tilani Taketa led off the fourth with a double and came around to score the go-ahead run on Makayla Johnson’s grounder.
Mia Joaquin’s solo blast started off a fifth inning in which Kealakehe sent 12 runners to the plate and scored seven times.
“I hear my teammates cheering for me, but I still try and block it off, just to focus on the ball,” she said.
Freeda Tosie hit two balls hard in the inning, driving in a run with a hit and reaching on a error. Jace Alvarez Hopkins and Rhianna Joaquin each brought runs home with sacrifice flies.
In the sixth, Palos delivered a two-run single.
Hilo starting pitcher Hauoli Kalipi struggled with her command at times, and she wasn’t rewarded when she made a good pitch in the fifth to Mia Joaquin, who hit a shallow pop fly to left that fell in between for a two-run double.
Waiakea will visit Hilo on Monday in a game that will decide which team hosts their D-I semifinal.
Joaquin’s middle two years of high school softball were lost to the pandemic, but she might just be able to bookend her career with BIIF titles.
“This is better than I envisioned it to be,” she said. “I love my team. I love the support I get.”
