Power surge sparks No. 1 Kamehameha softball over young 'Iolani
Mar. 22—The Kapalama Power Company is fully equipped.
The Kapalama Power Company is fully equipped.
Kezia Lucas and Mua Williams made sure of it on Thursday, belting mammoth home runs as No. 1 Kamehameha overpowered No. 10 'Iolani 12-1 in five innings at Ala Wai Field II, a.k.a. the dog park.
"We feel good as a team. They're executing what we're asking them to execute. They're playing well and playing for each other, and that's all we can ask them to do, " Warriors coach Mark Lyman said. "We tell them, don't try (for home runs ), but that's just their natural swing. They have big, powerful swings, they're super strong. You give them something they can handle, they'll put it deep."
The Warriors improved to 5-0 in ILH play, establishing a resume fitting of 1 ) a defending state champion, and 2 ) a softball dynasty. Coming into Thursday's matchup, Kamehameha had defeated Maryknoll 10-7, 'Iolani 13-3, Mid-Pacific 15-4 and Punahou 16-1.
Kiani Soller fired a three-hitter to beat 'Iolani on Thursday. The young Raiders—six sophomores and freshmen start—eked out four walks and kept competing despite the final score.
Soller believes the repeat campaign is different from last year's state-title run.
"Everything was working warmups. My challenge was trying to throw strikes, to let my defense back me up. I trust them. They made all the plays for me so I didn't have to strike anybody out, " Soller said. "It's kind of easier because we know how much work we have to do. We got close from last year."
Williams, their shortstop and reigning Star-Advertiser All-State Player of the Year, believes this season is tougher.
"As a team, we're playing really good. We're learning to catch each other's backs, " said Williams, who had a three-run homer. "It does feel a little bit different (this year ). This year I feel like there's a lot more pressure for some reason. I guess because it's my senior year. It does feel different because we had Neveah Telles and Jewels Hanawahine as our two leaders. Just missing them a bit."
Lucas and Williams had 10 home runs each during ILH play last season. So far, Lucas has five and Williams has four.
"I feel good. It was team effort and a team win. Offensively, we practice a lot at school at hitting ground balls and line drives, " said Lucas, who belted a two-run homer.
The Raiders slipped to 1-3 in league play. They got their first win on Wednesday in a 14-12 slugfest with Mid-Pacific.
"We have a very young team, just grinding and you have to learn along the way, " 'Iolani coach Chad Cordero said. "You'll hit these bumps in the road, make mistakes and learn from them. We battled, got runners on base and kept competing."
On a sunny, occasionally breezy afternoon, the Warriors took advantage of three errors by the home team in the first inning. Bobbi Cambra's run-scoring single highlighted a three-run frame, and all three runs were unearned off 'Iolani starter Molly Dyer.
The visitors added three more runs in the top of the second inning. Marley Espiau's triple brought home Nikki Chong. Landri Nakano followed with a single to score Espiau, and after Nakano advanced to third base on an error, she scored on a sacrifice fly by Lucas.
The Raiders got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning. Mehana Goo walked, went to third base on an error and scored on Mia Carbonell's line-drive single to center.
In the fourth inning, Mariah Antoque drew a one-out walk, and with two outs, Lucas sent a towering fly ball down the left field line. The ball cleared the fence roughly 230 feet away to give Kamehameha an 8-1 lead.
In the fifth, Espiau's single scored Alexis Ahlo-Garcia, and after Nakano walked, Williams sent an high fly ball deep to left, almost identical to Lucas' homer. Her three-run blast capped the scoring for Kamehameha, which clamped down in the bottom of the fifth for the TKO mercy-rule win.
