Battle-tested Knights Ready For State Championships
By Jack Danilewicz
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A team with 10 sophomores can’t be described as anything but youthful, and yet Castle coach Jon Berinobis and his Knights have put on a lot of mileage over the past two seasons.
If anything, the Knights have accumulated enough experience in close games alone over the past two seasons that they have to rate as one of the more-seasoned teams at this week’s Datahouse Division I State Softball Championships regardless of the amount of underclassmen.
“We are more (battle-tested) this year than last,” Berinobis said. “Our sophomores who played as freshmen had that year under their belt, and they’ve been a little more poised. They improved in the tough games and came through at some key times.”
The Knights enter the state tournament at 11-5 for the second year in a row and have been idle since May 2, when the Oahu Interscholastic Association Tournament wrapped. Castle had defeated Waipahu (9-5) and Campbell (4-3) to advance to the semifinals of the OIA Tournament, where they were beaten by Roosevelt, 2-1. The Knights lost the third-place game to Kapolei by an identical 2-1 score the following day, but hopes are high this week given the narrow margin of victory in most games played during the OIA’s post-season.
The forecast for this week’s state tournament is for more close encounters. Pairings for the tournament, which will run Tuesday through Friday at the University of Hawaii, were to be finalized late Sunday. As in past years, the 12-team field looks balanced, in Berinobis’ view.
“The teams will be evenly matched,” Berinobis said. “We have good pitching and defense, and we can hit the ball well like everyone else. I told the girls,‘why wait until next year or the year after (to be a factor)? Why not go after it this year? We have as good of a chance as anybody.’”
While Castle awaited word on its opponent for Tuesday, Berinobis expected to go with senior Chandelle Dacosin on the mound in their first-round game, regardless of the opponent.
“She’s been very consistent on the mound and offensively,” Berinobis said of Dacosin. “She’s performing double duty by playing third when not pitching. Offensively, she’s been up and down the order. She started at No. 2 (in the batting order), then we moved her down, and now she’s leading off in the playoffs.”
While it is possible Berinobis could pitch Dacosin all four days, he also has more than viable options with sophomores Maycee Moe and Leisha Li’ili’i. Moe would be the No. 1 pitcher on most staffs and has been consistent this spring for the Knights, while Li’ili’i made her first pitching appearance in the OIA Tournament versus Kapolei and had a solid outing. Defensively, Berinobis praised Castle’s play up the middle, behind freshman shortstop Brittiney Hawn and senior second baseman Kaitlyn Wills, an All-Conference center fielder last season before making the transition to the infield last February.
With every team expected to have good pitching and defense going for them, the Knights’ offensive output figures to go a long way in determining their fate.
The Knights scored 13 runs in their first two OIA Tournament games against Waipahu and Campbell, but mustered only two in their final two games.
“We’ll need timely hitting,” Berinobis said of this week. “We left a lot of people on base this season, and we need to brush up on our base running. We ran ourselves into some outs with poor decisions (in the OIA Tournament).”
At the plate, Berinobis likes the steady progress of right-fielder Alyssa Cipriano, who was a reserve at the start of the 2009 season, and Moe, who has been a mainstay in the No. 5 spot.
“Alyssa has come on - she’s helped us big-time,” Berinobis said of Cipriano, who has moved all the way up the Knights’ batting hierarchy to the No. 3 slot. “Maycee’s been hitting the ball right on the money, but straight at people. She’s done a good job.”
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