Feasting on some of the weaker BIIF teams early in the season, the Konawaena softball team is off to a 4-0 start behind a young and talented squad that has very few returning starters. Despite being young, the players have built chemistry quickly in practice.
Feasting on some of the weaker BIIF teams early in the season, the Konawaena softball team is off to a 4-0 start behind a young and talented squad that has very few returning starters. Despite being young, the players have built chemistry quickly in practice.
“This team practices really well, I think because a lot of them have played together before,” said Konawaena head coach Shellie Grace. “They are able to jell.”
Practice has been the most time consuming part of the season so far as the youthful Wildcats have not played a full seven innings in a BIIF game yet.
In Konawaena’s first game against Pahoa, the Wildcats won 19-8 in five innings. Their second victory came in a 16-1 beatdown of Ka’u in a game that did not make it out of the fourth inning. Konawaena followed that up with another 5-inning game against Pahoa. This time the team scored 11 runs in the top of the fifth inning for an 18-4 victory.
On Monday, the Wildcats traveled to Hawaii Preparatory Academy. Konawaena took a 14-0 lead before the first half inning ended. They went on to win the 4-inning game, 21-1.
The Wildcats were aided by control issues from the Hawaii Prep pitchers, but the offense took advantage of the extra baserunners with eight extra base hits, including two home runs by Teizha Kaluna and one homer by Tiani Lastimosa.
Kaluna went 2-for-2 with two walks, four runs and five RBIs against Ka Makani. For the season, she has totaled 13 RBIs, while hitting .727. She has also scored 10 times and of her eight hits, six have gone for extra bases.
Through the first four games, Konawaena has five players hitting over .400, who have 10 or more at-bats. Kaimana Joy Manzano leads the way with a .750 average. She is followed by Kaluna, Andi Uemura (.615), Lastimosa (.500), Sierra Amor (.417).
“All the hitters can provide power and contact,” Grace said. “Considering we have such a young team, we feel pretty good on how they are working together offensively”
As for pitching, the Wildcats have no shortage of arms despite not returning one starter to the circle from a year ago. Konawaena has thrown four pitchers so far, with three of them starting, and to no one’s surprise at the high school level, these pitchers are also the team’s top hitters.
Kaluna is the only Konawaena pitcher to have started two games. She struggled in her first game against Pahoa, but against Hawaii Prep, she allowed only one earned run off four hits, while striking out two. She did not walk a batter.
Amor took the ball in the second showing against Pahoa. She allowed only one unearned run and three hits, while walking four and striking out nine.
Uemura threw the four innings against Ka’u, allowing one earned run off two hits. She walked two and struck out seven.
“Right now we are just trying to see how the girls do and really haven’t decided on a set rotation,” Grace said. “They have all been doing pretty good. We just want to see how they grow the rest of the season.”
The Wildcats are attempting to reach states for the fourth consecutive year. Last year, Konawaena managed to nab the fourth seed for the BIIF tournament, and after losing to Kamehameha-Hawaii in semifinals, they beat Honokaa the third place game to make it to states.
The Wildcats reached states in 2015 despite having a shaky defense that was error prone. Defense has been a big focus for Grace early this season.
“Every game we shoot for no errors, that is our main focus,” Grace said. “Today we had a few, but we are just taking it one game at a time and we will go from there.”
Grace hopes the team can reach states again this season. The Wildcats last won the BIIF title in 2011.