Baseball Earns Regular Season Title

The Molokai High School Boys Baseball team cinched the regular season championship last weekend on Maui, winning games against both Seabury and St. Anthony. The Farmers have won 44 of their last 45 MIL league games and the team is now seeking its fifth straight league title.

Last Friday, the Farmers (8-1) beat Seabury 5-1 at Eddie Tam Field in Makawao. Nainoa Kaahanui struck out six and allowed only four hits in the victory. The next day, Molokai beat St. Anthony 16-3 at Maehara Stadium in Kahului to finish the regular season on a strong note. Aaron Rapanot had three triples and drove in four runs. Chevy Augustiro had three hits with a triple, an RBI and three runs scored. Rapanot scored twice and Kekaiomalu Adachi had two hits. Jayden Dudoit Tabilangan gave up only two hits in the victory.

The Farmers will play St. Anthony in semifinal of the MIL DII Baseball Tournament on Thursday, April 13 at 1:30 p.m. at Maehara Stadium. The championship game will be on Friday, April 14 at 5:30 p.m. The other semifinal is Lanai against Seabury.

Head Coach Ilika Kaahanui is happy with his team’s success this season but knows there is a lot of work still to be done.

“This season was a challenge on and off the field and we were able to make do and finish this season in first place,” he said. “We still have work to do to prepare for the tournament. Being seeded number one going into the tournament makes us feel good.  Defensively, we’ve been making plays and minimizing our errors. Our pitchers need to throw strikes and offensively the bats are waking up at the best time going into this tournament.”

The state championships for division ii will be held at Hans L’Orange Field and Les Murakami Stadium April 27–29.