Ahu helps upstart Pac-Five pound No. 1 Waiakea

The fabled Molokai Farmers from the turn of the century might have some company.

Upstart Pac-Five beat state tournament stalwart Waiakea 8-0 in the semifinals of the Wally Yonamine Foundation/HHSAA Division I State Baseball Tournament at Les Murakami Stadium on Friday, earning a spot in today’s championship against Mililani.

The Wolf Pack are in the Division I tournament for the first time and regal Waiakea had won five straight state semifinals, with a 2022 title and last year’s runner-up finish among those. Tiny Molokai captured the state’s imagination with championships in 1999 and 2000 before classification. Pac-Five, a collection of small ILH schools not big enough to field their own teams, has the same lack of pedigree.

“I have no idea about the Molokai Farmers. I was 7 years old in 2000,” Pac-Five coach Reyn Sugai said. “All I know is that this is a special group, a group of guys that came up together and really bought into playing for each other and playing for this program and kind of turn it around. It is truly something special.”

The first inning was all about the three true outcomes, with Waiakea starting pitcher Hurley Soong allowing a ball in play on his second pitch but not again for the rest of the frame. Alika Ahu singled to center to lead it off for Pac-Five and Jaxon Cadiz followed with a walk. The electric Soong struck out the next two batters on six pitches but walked Keaka Bennett, Noah Keitzer and Colten Gallano in succession to gift the Wolf Pack two runs before striking out Thomas Mitchell to leave the bases loaded. He needed 40 pitches to get back into the dugout.

In contrast, Pac-Five’s Ahu needed 14 pitches in the bottom half, 13 of them for strikes.

Pac-Five got the bats on the ball in the second, scoring when Ahu singled past the shortstop to score Titan Dixon and motoring all the way around to third after Waiakea’s left fielder misplayed the ball. Ahu could have had another run to work with, but he was judged to have left third base early on a sacrifice fly by Cadiz.

He didn’t need any more.

Ahu, who texted his coach asking for the ball the night before, limited the Warriors to two hits and struck out eight batters with just one walk. He was pulled in the last inning of the blowout in favor of Noah Keitzer, who pitched around two walks to complete a scoreless seventh.

“I only care about winning the game, to be honest,” Ahu said. “We had to stay focused and make sure we didn’t let up. It just goes to show that our defense and pitching is pretty scrappy. We don’t have much arms, we just go out there and trust our defense and play hard.”

Pac-Five broke the game open in the sixth inning when pinch hitter Brayden Bello drew a bases-loaded walk after Waiakea’s third pitching change. A single by Ahu with Waiakea errors before and after it made the score 8-0 with no outs and made a mercy killing a possibility. Waiakea hadn’t been knocked out since the 2018 championship against Baldwin, but the Wildcats staved it off this time when Austen Ahu was caught stealing.