KALAHEO — Reggie Vigilia did a masterful job for Kalawai on the mound, but Koloa capitalized on four Kalawai miscues to come from behind and take a 6-4 victory as the Pony Baseball play-offs continued at Kalawai Park Wednesday afternoon.
KALAHEO — Reggie Vigilia did a masterful job for Kalawai on the mound, but Koloa capitalized on four Kalawai miscues to come from behind and take a 6-4 victory as the Pony Baseball play-offs continued at Kalawai Park Wednesday afternoon.
The Koloa victory sets the stage for Sunday’s championship showdown at Vidinha Stadium against Lihu‘e starting at 10 a.m.
Dondi Viquelia, who was also acting as the head umpire for the Wednesday playoff game, said that should Koloa win the first game, a second game will follow.
If Lihu‘e takes the opening contest, they will be the outright champions.
Koloa, who was chasing a 3-0 deficit through four innings, came alive in the fifth inning as Jason Medina got aboard on a Kalawai error. Kapena Thomas-Place singled followed by Dustin Prem singling to load the bases with no outs.
Allianic hits scored Thomas-Place and Prem as Koloa recovered from their own miscues on the basepath that resulted in Medina getting nailed at home in the confusion.
With Balocan in the batter’s box, Allianic stole home to deadlock the contest, 3-3.
Koloa upped the ante in the seventh inning as Thomas-Place opened with a single only to get tagged out on a steal attempt on second.
Three back-to-back walks filled the bases with one out, and an errant throw to third by Kalawai scored Prem.
Behind Marcus Oketani’s bat, another Kalawai miscue scored Balocan, and a final Kalawai throwing error trying to tag Oketani’s steal of second scored Galen Lee for Koloa’s final run.
Kalawai fought back, but could only muster one run in the bottom of the 7th as Loren Duarte opened with a single, scoring on a Robert Perreira RBI single with no outs. Perreira was later nailed trying to steal second as catcher Thomas-Place connected with shortstop Prem.
Kaulana Judd followed with another single off Allianic, with Paul Correa taking first on a walk with one out.
But, Allianic stiffened on the mound and struck out the final two batters to preserve their lead.
Kalawai made their move early in the game, scoring Judd and Vigilia in the first inning with two outs, and upped the lead in the third inning as Duarte scored on a Perreira sacrifice fly to rightfield.
Allianic was credited with the win for Koloa as he held Koloa to just one run while Balocan gave up three runs in the first three innings.
Vigilia, despite a strong performance for Kalawai, was strapped with the loss.
