Waipahu Rematch With Radford Promises To Be Big
By Jack Danilewicz
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Del.icio.usOne game may not make a season - at least not in the ultra-competitive Oahu Interscholastic Association’s White Conference - but the Waipahu baseball team knows Friday afternoon’s game against Radford is plainly its biggest to date.
“The second game with Radford is the key (to the regular season),” said longtime coach Milton Takenaka. “We tied them in the first game, so if they win this time, they would have an edge in head-to-head (competition). I told the kids, these are the kind of games you want to play in.”
Waipahu’s 8-8 tie with Radford back on March 12 represents the only blemish on an otherwise perfect record. On the heels of that encounter, the Marauders reeled off four straight victories over Nanakuli (7-0), Kalaheo (8-0), Kahuku (6-3) and Waialua (10-5) to emerge as the league’s front runner as the OIA’s first round of games drew to a close. A first-place finish in the White would guarantee Waipahu the No. 1 seed in the OIA playoffs later this month, but Takenaka was more concerned with his team’s level of play than positioning for the playoffs or the Marauders’ won-lost ledger.
“Even through we’re 4-0-1, I’m not real happy right now,” Takenaka said. “We haven’t had anyone play the way they’re capable of yet, although Triton (Gante) threw a good game against Waialua. Our pitching hasn’t been too bad, but in the field we’ve kind of stunk the place up. Too many errors. We can’t go anywhere but up right now. I was so upset after the Waialua game that I gave them (last) Wednesday off. We just all needed a day off. I needed a day off, and they needed a day to not have to worry about baseball.”
Takenaka also expected to give the Marauders last Saturday off to “ease them back into school,” which was to begin again Monday at Waipahu following two weeks off for spring break. Waipahu was to play Kaimuki last Friday and was to take on Farrington Tuesday before having three days to prepare for the Marauders’ aforementioned showdown with Radford. While self-imposed miscues have plagued Waipahu all season, the Marauders have survived by being opportunistic.
“We’ve kind of taken advantage of other teams’ mistakes,” said Takenaka, who coached Waipahu to an OIA championship in his first season as head coach of the program in 1985. “In our last game with Waialua, we had six runs on one hit one inning. They had a lot of walks. We’ve been scoring runs, but we’ve been giving up a lot of runs, also. That’s the part I’m not happy about. We have to come out and work harder at all of these things.
“It’s a lack of communication,” he continued. “We’ve had balls fall in between guys because of it. Offensively, we haven’t had a game where we’ve really hit the ball yet. We’ve had too many strikeouts, and we’ve left too many people on base.”
Finishing strong would go a long way toward his team’s collective confidence, according to Takenaka.
“You want to build up to the playoffs, and we’re not even close to that right now,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll get better and we’ll be ready (for the playoffs).”
Following Friday’s game with Radford, a May 11 visit to Waialua is all that remains on Waipahu’s White schedule. A game against Nanakuli set for May 8 will be forfeited by the Golden Hawks because their depleted roster left them with too few players to compete for the rest of the season.
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