Surfriders Bring Grit, Strong Pitching To OIA Tourney

Wednesday - May 02, 2007
By Jack Danilewicz
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Kailua’s Kili Vierra sends off a flying throw. Photo by Nathalie Walker
Kailua’s Kili Vierra sends off a flying throw.
Photo by Nathalie Walker,
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When it comes to racking up style points, it’s hard to topple the Kailua baseball program, where classic comebacks and fantastic finishes have been a way of life over the past decade under coach Corey Ishigo.

As the Surfriders enter this week’s Oahu Interscholastic Association Conference Tournament, they find themselves in familiar territory - as the team everyone else is weary of.

“One thing Corey’s teams have always had is that you never can count them out,“said Kalani coach Shannon Hirai.“It said a lot about them the other day when they were able to come back against Roosevelt.

A lot of times, they’ll find a way to win.Year in and year out, he’s always done a great job of getting them ready.”


Kailua went 9-1 to win the East during the OIA regular season, with their only loss coming April 13 to defending East champion Kaiser. That earned them the East’s No. 1 seed for this week’s tournament and first-round bye on Wednesday. (Pairings for the tournament were to be announced over the weekend.) Kailua will host a quarter-final matchup Thursday. The top five finishers in the tourney earn bids to the Wally Yonamine Foundation State Baseball Championships May 9-12 at Rainbow Stadium on the University of Hawaii campus.

Kailua has won five of the last seven OIA titles (most recently in 2005) as well as the 2001 state championship. It was in the 2001 state title game that the team began a long run of come-from-behind victories, when Kailua tallied six runs in the bottom of the last inning to defeat Mid-Pacific 9-8.

“At playoff time, somehow he always has them ready to go,” said Hirai, whose team lost to Kailua 3-2 on April 21 in one of only two regular-season setbacks suffered by the Falcons.“There have been years when they didn’t have the regular season they wanted, but they got hot at playoff time. Their kids bond and believe that they can beat anyone at the end of the season. Right now, they have that confidence about them.”


Good pitching and solid defense have always been characteristics of Kailua’s teams, and the Surfriders will bring a deep pitching staff into the post-season again, led by Zach Akamine, Kili Vierra and Preston Nakata. Vierra recently pitched a five-hitter in Kailua’s win over Kalani, while Akamine got the call last week against Roosevelt when the East title was on the line. Having finished the season last Wednesday with a win over Roosevelt, the Surfriders were to have a week off to rest their staff.

“They don’t have an overpowering guy, but they’re very smart (as a staff),” Hirai said. “They can all throw, and they have a catcher (Rayner Yokoi) who can call his own game. Offensively, they’re real disciplined at the plate. I had seen them play at Castle before we played them, and they really hit the ball well.”

The OIA semifinals are on Friday with the title game scheduled for Saturday.

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