Kailua to host Kalani Saturday

Story by: Stacy Kaneshiro | Scoringlive
Photos by: Greg Yamamoto

Honolulu, HI - The opening week of the Oahu Interscholastic Association Division I baseball season is underway and in the Eastern Division a marquee matchup will already take place over the weekend.

Kalani will pay a visit to Kailua Saturday in a meeting of 1-0 teams. First pitch between the Falcons and Surfriders is scheduled for 11 a.m.

It will be second of three consecutive road games to open the season for Kalani, which is coming off a 4-2 win over Roosevelt Wednesday.

Jarod Kaneshiro threw a complete-game five-hitter in just 76 pitches to earn the win against the Rough Riders. He also batted 2 for 3 with a run scored. Kalani scored three runs in the second inning and added another in the sixth before Roosevelt plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh.

"We played well until, I guess, the last inning," Falcons coach Shannon Hirai said. "Our pitcher decides to kind of tinker with his mechanics, then he got hit kind of hard, but we pretty much have to play solid defense. If we can hit that's a plus. I don't think we're going to hit with much power and consistency as our past teams and i think all of our games will be close so a big key will be our pitchers throwing strikes and playing solid D."

Right fielder Logan Cabbat drove in three runs in the victory. Hirai said Cabbat and fellow senior Chad Kagawa behind the plate will have to lead the way this season.

"We're going to rely heavily on those two," Hirai said. "Cabbat hit the ball well against Roosevelt, so hopefully that gets him out of a slump. Chad right now hasn't been hitting the ball real well, but defensively he does a lot for us. I think he's one of the few catchers in our league that calls his own game and his leadership is a big plus for us."

Youth and inexperience are factors that have Hirai unsure of what to expect from his group.

"I really don't know because we're fairly young. We started two freshman and two sophomores against Roosevelt and you know how that goes. it's kind of unpredictable as far as how they're going to act, as far as game situations."

Among the losses to graduation Kalani will have to overcome are outfielder Kohl Suehiro and ace pitcher Harrison Moy. Both of them earned Second Team All-Hawaii honors last season.

Hirai is high on senior center fielder Zachary Wong, who he calls their best defensive outfielder, as well as pitchers Max Patterson and Edward Lee. Both Patterson, a junior, and Lee, a senior, are on the mend, however, and are expected back in the coming weeks.

"They're slowly making their way back. Both throw in the mid to upper 80s," Hirai said. "Those two, if they get healthy, I think will be two of the better pitchers in our division."

Also, sophomore Kai Matsumoto, a corner infielder/pitcher, and freshman Brandon Ting, who was the designated hitter Wednesday, have been a pleasant surprise so far.

"We got to see in the preseason if they could hit varsity pitching and right now they're kind of leading the team in hitting," Hirai said.

As for the Surfriders, if their opener Wednesday was any indication, scoring runs won't be a problem this year. They posted 11 hits en route to a 13-0 win over Moanalua in a game called after five innings due to the mercy rule.

The next day, however, Kailua coach Corey Ishigo pumped the brakes pretty hard on any talk of a prolific offense.

"There's nothing really to get from that," Ishigo said. "It was just something that's going to motivate us to try to get better."

Seven different Surfriders registered a hit and four of them paired hits. Leadoff hitter Matthew Kaleiohi batted 2 for 4 with two RBI and two runs scored, Cody Riturban went 2 for 3 with a walk, two RBI and a run scored from the two-hole, and Dakota Kadooka homered, walked twice and scored three times against Na Menehune.

Kailua lost just one player to graduation, but it was All-Hawaii Player of the Year Joey Cantillo, now a member of the San Diego Padres organization.

"Losing one player doesn't sound like a lot, but when that one player is Joey Cantillo it is a lot," Ishigo said. "It was the leadership he provided, it was the offense, it was just the confidence we had when he was pitching because it was like if we had that guy on the mound, we felt like we could win and that's why I say everybody this year will have to pick up the slack because we don't have that guy with the cape that can fly around and do it all for us. Everybody's gotta step up and do a little more. We're not replacing Joey, but we're just increasing everybody else's workload."

Despite the loss of Cantillo to graduation, the Surfriders are loaded with talent. Riturban, a third baseman and Kaleiohi, an outfielder, along with first baseman Jalen Ah Yat and catcher Kalua Neves all earned First Team All-OIA East honors last year. Also, pitcher Stone Parker — who threw five innings of one-hit ball with six strikeouts and one walk to get the win against Moanalua Wednesday — was a Second Team selection. Parker has signed with the University of Kansas.

"I don't think there's a key player; I think all the players are key," Ishigo said. "It doesn't matter (which) player does outstanding that day, we just expect them all to do their job and do their part."

The offensive explosion Wednesday was in stark contrast to the preseason for the Surfriders.

"We had a rough preseason," Ishigo said. "We had a hard time scoring runs, we had a hard time doing anything right really. We couldn't throw strikes and we couldn't hit. We got shut out three games in a row at the Mililani tournament, but it's not like we're a different team from then. It's the same team, same players, just a different focus."

Ishigo said the team is mature enough to trust the process and stay even-keel through the highs and lows.

"It's just the constant effort as coaches and team to get better every day and if we get one percent better everyday that means we are improving," Ishigo said. "It's not like we're making big changes or changing our philosophy on how we hit or how we swing the bat. It's the little things to get the players better and our players trust us and what we do, so the changes don't take a long time."

Senior Kekoa Gabriel will get the starting nod on the mound for Kalani, while Kailua will turn to junior Bryson Ballesteros, a Second Team All-OIA D1 East pick in 2017.

The Surfriders swept both meetings against the Falcons last season.