Hilo PONY Tournament

The Hilo Tournament was a lot of fun. We ended up going all the way to the semi-final game. We lost to Maui, who then lost to Windward in the championship game.
Here's a link to the game box scores if you are interested in the details.

We lost our first game against Lihue. We really should have won that game but things just didn't go our way. We left 10 men on base, including 2 bases loaded innings. This put us in the losers bracket, which meant that if we were going to win it all, we'd have to play 6 more games over 4 days. It also meant that our backs were against the wall and one more loss would send us home.



The second game was against the host Hilo team. Our hitters got back into the groove in this game and we won 6-11. The next day would be a double header day, starting at 8 in the morning.
The boys were feeling good and were having a great time in Hilo. They were all getting to know each other a lot better and were having fun, on and off the field.



The first game of the double header was against Makakilo-Kapolei. KAC belted out 15 hits in this game and scored in every inning. The next game would be a rematch against Lihue. We pitched our Ace pitcher in this game. He went the entire game and pitched one of the best games I've seen all season. He had total command of all his pitches and kept the Lihue team off balance at the plate for the entire game. He pitched 7 innings and threw only 67 pitches.

We advanced to see another day. This meant another early game against the winner of Windward vs Maui and then the championship game. By now, the boys were feeling the affects of baseball all day and playing around all night. We almost pulled it off. In the bottom of the 7th, we scored 2 runs to make it 8-5. With 2 outs, we loaded the bases and had our leadoff batter at the plate. But it wasn't meant to be and the game ended there.



So that was that. Our season was over. The boys played great in that tournament. The game against Maui had some spectacular plays. Huge hits... a couple of home runs and triples that were hit to the deep Hilo outfield fence. Great defensive plays... a deep shot to center field that was caught over the shoulder and a diving catch of a line drive to the left field line.

I got to know a lot of the boys a lot better. They are all great kids and I hope to see them again sometime in the future....and that they remember me. :)

The tournament was a great experience. The team played great and I'm proud of what they accomplished. I think we all would have wanted to beat Maui to get a shot at the Windward team but I also think we wanted to win so we could stay together a bit longer.